Primary President Erlyn Batatay and Primary Secretary Cynthia Saldoa
Prepare for Primary
Elder Cocos and Ward Missionary Cyril Cuanso
Branch 1 began at 9:00 a.m. and Priesthood, Relief Society, and Primary began promptly. Only one sister, not including me, and the teacher were there when it was time to start, but the teacher started anyway and was doing a fine job when I left to go to Primary. I had seen the Primary President and Secretary earlier taping up the words to songs and preparing the room. They had an excellent Primary with lots of singing, sharing time, classes for both the older and younger children, and four Primary leaders who stayed in the room the entire time helping one another. It was a delight. About 12 children attended. They had the Primary songs on cassettes and had a nice recorder in the room and used that to help teach the songs. The children knew many songs and sang with great enthusiasm.
During Sunday school hour Bob taught the combined youth and adult classes on the Signs of the True Church and the Bible references to the Book of Mormon. People seemed very interested in what he had to say.
In Sacrament meeting, the Branch President asked me to be the concluding speaker – he asked Bob first, but Bob said he had already talked for a long time and that they could ask me. I told the story of Ammon and King Lamoni and talked about the power of love, and the importance of love and forgiveness in a small branch like theirs. Most of the people understand English, but I did introduce my talk and conclude with my testimony in Visayan.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Lutopan Branch One and they seemed very grateful to have us. They are out in the bundok (the origin of our word boondocks) and don’t get many visitors from the Mission leadership.
We were impressed again with the Toledo District leadership. President Cocjson had assigned his First Counselor, who lives in Lutopan, to meet us at the Branch, to welcome us and to see that all went well. We are grateful for his support. If only we had more senior couples in our mission so that a couple could be assigned to Toledo District and visit these Branches more often than we will be able to do.
Lutopan Branch II began at noon and again I visited Primary and Bob taught during the Sunday School hour. This Primary was a little bigger, not quite as well organized, but again had lots of singing and all the Primary leaders – 4 stayed with the children the entire time, very helpful. They asked me – on the spot – to teach the class lesson of which a posted outline was on the board from the first Branch. It was titled "The Saints Build Winter Quarters" and they weren't sure what "Quarters" meant. I had just heard the lesson the hour before, so was able to do it. I had brought crayons and paper with me and had the children draw a picture of how they could help someone. They very much liked that activity and the Primary leaders had their own crayons to use. The First Counselor wanted to tell the children exactly what to draw, and I asked her to let the children decide. She replied, “Oh, you want them to use their own coconut (pointing to her head. We all laughed. A little later as part of the lesson, I asked her a question and she looked a little puzzled. I said, “You use your own coconut.” She laughed and then came up with a very good answer. I helped them a little with the tunes of some of the songs – I’m not much help in the music department so we laughed and sang together. After the closing prayer, they had some time left, so I taught them “Do As I’m Doing” and teachers and children together had fun as we sang. There was a great feeling in the Primary and wonderful cooperation among the leaders. We still had time, so each person bore their testimony in Visayan – including me. The children, who can read and talk in both English and Visayan, were quite interested in my elementary Visayan and even helped me with a word or two. It was a great experience.
Again when he was asked, Bob volunteered me to speak in Sacrament meeting and I told the story of Ammon again and along with a little about “Taming the Wicked Witch of Barbara Avenue” and encouraged them to love and serve and forgive one another as we had heard that they were having some problems in that area. Prior to Sacrament meeting the Branch President arranged a fan to blow directly on me as I was seated on the stand, and even though it blew my hair all over the place, I was very grateful as the afternoon air was very still and hot. (There had been a lovely breeze in the morning meetings.)
We visited a bit after the meeting and I used my new Visayan phrase that Elder Lowry had taught me, “I am happy to be getting to know you.” Elder Hardman introduced me to a sister – actually the Primary first counselor who had teased about the ‘coconut’ and told me her 18 year old daughter has a heart defect and the doctors in Toledo say she much have heart surgery or she will die. The father died last year and six months later the mother had a series of strokes. She is recovering well, can walk (with a limp) and do some things, but she lost her job. I am interested in some of this humanitarian work and since there is no couple here with that assignment, I hope to do some of that. I checked with the President and he said, “Fine. That would be great.” I asked her to write down the problem and the situation (Elder Hardman will help her and then will bring it to me on Friday when he comes to Cebu for Zone Conference.) The daughter is the Branch organist and plays the simplified version of the hymns on the keyboard.
We decided to take a new way home. Cyril drew us a ‘sketch’ and then he and his brother and little sister rode part way with us to help us find the way. We had been warned that it was a bumpy road and it was. We had also been told to get behind a big bus and stay there and we did. The lovely Trans Central Highway is closed to big trucks and busses to preserve the beauty and serenity of the area so they all go on this “National Highway.’ It is under construction and was gravel and mud (it had rained during sacrament meeting) and potholes and bumps most of the way. We couldn’t enjoy the scenery much as we had to watch the road so carefully – a lot of traffic – many busses and big trucks. We came out on the east coast in the city of Naga right at a beautiful new LDS Chapel. We then drove along the coast north through Naga, Talisay and then south Cebu. This way had much more traffic and was not as pretty as our usual way, but we were glad we tried it out and became acquainted with a new area.
We arrived home just before dark – a little after 5:30- tired and happy.
