This past week was another week full of dedicated people, interesting sites and hopefully some good was accomplished. On Monday we headed up to Gerona School Division to follow-up on a request there. This is about two hours north of us here. We had such a nice visit with teachers, a principal and other officials from the school division there. We will present this project request tomorrow. They are asking for one Smart TV for each of 29 schools. The person who gave us the request is a church member and her husband is a counselor in the mission presidency there. They showed us all around their division and the elementary school there as well as their garden. They sent us home with A LOT of calamansi.

After we finished with them, we continued driving for another two hours so we would be prepared to visit with the Pangapisan School Division to give them an introduction to the R.A.C.H.E.L servers that will be coming their way soon. We met up with Lourdes Servito who started her career here and still has close ties to this area. She is the outgoing Superintendent of the San Carlos School District which we visited later that afternoon to follow up with two schools and see how the RACHELs are being utilized there. She is still a dedicated worker, even though she has retired. She has managed to stay busy helping schools in the area and has also started her own YouTube Channel called Aloha Feels. She is a great person to know when you want to help schools in this area. After visiting with the school division, she took us to see the capitol building and the World War II park . This area was made famous because McCarthur “came back” here and battles ensued in this area.

The next day was a holiday, so we took advantage of it and actually had a P Day! In the Dagupan area they have some nice beaches, so we spent our morning either in the ocean or walking along the beach watching the fishermen lay nets and just enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. It felt soooo good! The sand was very soft and the coast was flat there, so we could walk forever. Then we met up with Lourdes and her husband again so she could take us to her first high school where she became the principal and was responsible for bringing about another LDS charities donation: An entire building of five classrooms. She initiated some other projects there. She is a very resourceful and determined woman!

After we left Lourdes and the high school behind, we realized we would have to kill some time before getting back to the city, because our car is “coded” on Wednesdays. This means we can’t drive in the metro Manila area from 7-10 am and again from 5-8 pm. Therefore, we decided to go to Mt. Arayat National Park. This is a volcanic mountain that has beckoned us a few times when we have traveled up that way, but never had time to check it out. Well….let’s just say that National Parks here aren’t quite what they are in the U.S. We never did actually find the road that leads to the real park, but it made for an interesting drive. WAZE took us on some super narrow roads- so narrow that the tricycle owners had to lift their vehicles closer to the buildings so we could pass. And Elder Huff actually ran into an easy corner tent pole while trying to turn. Not fun! But it was definitely interesting and the mountain looked beautiful. Some day we will have to figure out where to go to hike it. But take a tricycle to get to it! We saw things “we ain’t never seen before” like turkeys and other things on the road. We also saw the Urdaneta temple that is being built. All in all, it was a great day.