We sang this in Sacrament meeting today and I thought about the lyrics. We usually just think of the first part of the chorus: I’ll go where you want me to go dear Lord, over mountain or plain or sea. And we certainly did that this week. But it’s the next part, I’ll say what you want me to say and especially I’ll be what you want me to be. Cause for reflection on that one. Elder Bednar has been visiting this past week and we have had the chance to hear from him and his wife as well as our area presidency. There was a lot of discussion about covenants and the wonderful blessings that come as we yoke ourselves to the Savior. He helps us carry heavy loads and walks beside us. I love this image and I need this!!! As I am sure many of you do as well.

We had a busy week- on the road again after not really going anywhere for awhile. We combined things so we just kept heading North. We started in the Tarlac area for a turnover of donation for a school district. The Gerona South School District became the fortunate recipient of 29 Smart TVs as well as 5 computers. A TV for each school in their district. They had a good plan for them, so their request was granted. We had the ceremony at the local church. It was heartwarming to see most everyone mouthing the words of a scripture from John that was being recited by our Welfare and Self Reliance Manager, Gerry Guerra. I hope they left feeling enriched and uplifted. It was a joyous occasion.

That evening, after checking into our favorite hotel and place of respite, the Monarch Hotel, and taking advantage of their lovely large pool, we met up with Gerry and his wife so they could take us to their favorite seafood place in Dagupan. I have been looking forward to this for a few months. I told Gerry we still hadn’t really had any great seafood here and didn’t know where to go to find it. He promised to take us to a place and it was wonderful! We all had more than our fill of seafood. The Heslops, a new humanitarian couple who are stationed way up north in San Fernando, came down to this area with us to attend the turnover and the school visits in San Carlos, so they were with us, as well as Romeo Rodriguez from the company that sells the RACHELS. So we had a nice group for our “Boodle Fight” feast. They just dump all the food on the paper covered table and you put on plastic gloves and dig in. Unfortunately, the paper got too soggy and the two tables that were put together had a slight crack…you can guess the rest. Elder Huff ended up with some juicy stuff on his shoes. Still worth it!

Next day was San Carlos. This is a city that LDS-C has given 10 R.A.C.H.E.Ls to and they have another 10 coming. Remember, this is a server that is loaded with educational content, some of which is interactive. The server acts as their internet while using it, so it’s especially helpful for remote schools that don’t have good internet (or any internet access at all). We asked to visit as many schools as possible in a day and to watch teachers using the RACHEL to teach. We ended up visiting 4 schools- three elementary and one high school. Of course, they treated us like royalty and fed us at each school and I felt bad that they had to take this kind of time (or chose to). We really just wanted to talk to the teachers, see what their experiences have been with the device so far, see if they have issues with it, etc. The lessons were well planned but I feel like they haven’t really seen the full value of the device yet. Our hope is they will catch the vision of what this can do for the learners. I think there are teachers out there who have been able to do this. We will forge onward and hope this becomes as worthwhile as originally thought. Look carefully at the banner from Central Elementary. We laughed so hard!! Romeo isn’t even a member of our church, let alone an Elder! And Elder Elizabeth!!!

The next leg of our journey took us into new territory. We headed up to Santa Cruz, Zambales to follow up on some requests and to help with a vision screening on Saturday. We really enjoyed this part of the Philippines. It’s the dry season up there, so it isn’t quite as lush in most parts, but there is a lot of farming and beautiful beaches and ocean. We loved the people we met, of course. And we had such a lovely stay at our little hotel on the beach. It just reopened after being bought by a woman from England and her husband, a Filipino. The food was great and we enjoyed getting to know them. There was only one other couple there while we were there, so it was very quiet. I couldn’t get enough of just gazing out at the ocean and watching the stars at night. The first time I have seen stars since we’ve been here! We had such treats as British fish and chips, and even sticky toffee pudding! The best we have ever tasted. We even took a little boat ride out into the ocean. Unfortunately, the owner of the boat couldn’t speak a lick of English, so we couldn’t explain that we wanted to find a good snorkeling spot. It was the perfect spot to get rejuvenated.

On Friday afternoon, we went south a bit to meet with the counselor in the Santa Cruz Stake Presidency and another church member who is a city councilman and went to three barangays to look into water projects for the people here. The people who live close to the highway have good water but the people who live in parts of these barangays that are more remote are currently using well water that isn’t deemed safe (or tasty). We trekked through some roads that you couldn’t really drive on and saw some beautiful and very remote areas. At least the people who live here are able to grow their food, so they most likely aren’t hungry and they can generally provide for their own needs. Basic, but still. In one barangay, they specialize in making bamboo skewers using a very primitive method. It’s impressive and very labor intensive. It started as a government sponsored livelihood project and they found it to be profitable, so they have kept it up.

Later that evening, we went with the same church leader to their church where a meeting was set up with all the bishops in the Stake. We knew he wanted to talk to them about member welfare projects, but what we didn’t know is that he wanted US to talk about member welfare projects. We thought they had a project that they wanted to propose to us. Oh well! We frankly don’t know that much about member welfare projects, but Elder Huff saved the day by talking about Start and Grow Your Business (which he is passionate about). On Saturday, we finished up the week by helping with a vision screening project that was part of another medical mission project. We met some of the wonderful people that we met at the first medical mission in Palawan. They are so amazing and dedicated. The doctors were there until 7 pm performing eye surgeries. I tell you! We finished early so we decided to leave our lovely beachside retreat and head back to congested Manila. Sad, but we are glad we got back last night. And there was the bonus of being able to listen to Elder Bednar’s devotional to the Philippines in the car on our way home. We had a driver this whole week accompany us since we didn’t get our Visas and therefore our local license in time. It has been inconvenient at times, but also kind of nice not to have to worry about driving. That will end in two days, though. Our Visas were finally processed and we will get our local licenses on Tuesday!!!!

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