ASEAN SUMMIT Training

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Into the office this morning came a sister from Lilo-An Stake who works in the Mayor’s office in Cebu City. She was here with other people from the Mayor’s office to see about using the Stake Center for training in connection with the upcoming ASEAN Summit Meetings. They had a previously-arranged venue that was pulled out from underneath them at the last minute; someone from the Governor’s Office need it for preliminary meetings also regarding the ASEAN Summit. The Mayor’s group was quite concerned about finding a suitable place at this late date – the training is scheduled for Friday with people from the Office of the Press Secretary for the President of the Philippines coming to meet with college journalism students assigned to help each country’s press corps. Sister Ann Atay, knowing of the great location of the Stake Center in Lahug, contacted the Stake President, John Ballados. He quickly approved and Ann and her group came over to check the building out….but the man who was supposed to meet them, unlock the doors and show them around wasn’t here. So she came in the office to see if I could help.

Fortunately, we have a master key to the Stake Center and I was glad to show them around. They were properly impressed with the facilities and said they would see me on Friday.

Friday, November 24, 2006

The Journalism Volunteer Training in connection with the ASEAN Summit began very early – 7 A.M. I went for a walk about six and then bought fruit and vegetables on my way home. By the time I returned people were arriving for the meeting. Delfin had come at 6 to set up the chairs and prepare the building. I walked over about 10 to see how things were going and to visit with Ann Atay. She welcomed me warmly and introduced me to people from the Mayor’s Office and from Manila. At her request, I came back to the office and rounded up about 100 copies of the Church News and took them over along with about 20 copies of old New Era, Liahona, and Ensign Magazines to be given to the participants. There were 108 students in the training and about thirty people from the Mayor's Office and the President's Press Office in Manila.
When the meetings were over, I went back over and visited with one of the women from the Presidents' Press Office in Manila. She thanked me again and again, saying how much better the Church facilities were than the place they had previously scheduled. She asked a little about our mission and about the Church. It was a pleasure to visit with her.

Thanksgiving 2006 in Cebu

November 21, 2006

We had an early thanksgiving today. I prepared a turkey dinner for us and six missionaries. This was their preparation day and they were scheduled to come to the office for interviews with the President at 1:00 p.m. so we had Thanksgiving lunch. Sisters Castillo and Vera Cruz brought mashed potatoes and green beans and Sisters Pressler and Siringan brought fruit salad. The office elders, Elders Domingo and Olsen brought two small tables and four chairs from the Church. Everything turned out fine – the gravy and the stuffing were especially good and we had fun visiting and eating together. I didn’t have pie pans so I made apple crisp and then served it with vanilla ice cream. The missionaries all had to leave right afterwards as a meeting for them had been planned at one o’clock. They used to just have interviews and go, one companionship at a time, so they had planned to help clean up while the others were being interviewed. Oh well! It didn’t take me too long and I enjoyed some good music while I put the leftovers away and then did the dishes. One of the highlights of the day was the delicious smell that permeated the apartment as the turkey roasted. Ummm.

Visit to Balamban

Sunday, November 5, 2006

We had a very lovely day yesterday traveling over to visit the two Balamban Branches on the other side of the island. Two sister missionaries have been assigned there - sisters for the first time in that district. One sister is young and has three months left on her mission. The other sister is a senior sister who arrived last week. Sisters Watterson and Hall were welcomed over and over. Sister Hall seemed delighted with the work. Their apartment is new, cozy, clean, and safe. Screens were put on the windows on Saturday. They were welcomed like visiting royalty particularly by a cadre of four returned missionary sisters who all volunteered to go with them and show them where the members live - and then, all four, did so on Saturday - the sisters had arrived Friday afternoon! The sisters are assigned to do activation/retention work We took five of the large Church pictures over to them as a little house-warming gift. They were excited since right now they have bare walls.

Kacy had sent Flat Stanley to visit us so we took a picture of him with a couple of Primary children and their leaders before Primary started.

Rain turns street into River

November 2, 2006
The rain came so hard and so fast today that it turned our street into a river. It was quite dramatic and fun as the photo shows.

All Souls' Day,

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

This is “All Souls Day” in the Philippines. People go to cemeteries with flowers and candles and decorate the graves and pray for the souls of their ancestors – that they will be released from purgatory. How blessed we are to have the Gospel and to be able to teach people the glorious principle of salvation for the dead – that they can do temple work for their ancestors and thus help them on their eternal journey.

Right outside the Church fence, women and their children set up stools and buckets of flowers and began making floral arrangements for people to buy. Almost immediately cars began stopping and people stepped out to pick up one or more of the arrangements to take with them to the cemetery.

Today is the day of Zone Conference for the Talisay, Cebu, and Toledo Zones. Sisters Siringan and Pressler arrived early from Labangon and went out to the street with me to take a few pictures. After the photo taking, Sister Siringan talked to two of the flower seller and found out they were from Busay, had several children, and liked being in the city ‘just for a day.’ She then told them a little about the Gospel and invited them to learn more in a very sweet and loving way. They said, “No, thank you,” and she went on to wish them success in their sales and thanked them for letting her share with them something that had brought happiness to her. It was a very lovely and comfortable experience.

Christmas in July

Christmas on July 01, 2006

Christmas came to the Cebu Mission on the first of July. After weeks of preparation by Dumaguete Zone leaders, we drove our car onto the campus of Negros Oriental State University to see 500 students (read “prospective members” or “investigators”) forming into their ranks on a field 100 yards by 200 yards. Their commandant informed me we had an hour and a half to teach about our religion!

One of the great challenges of missionary work is to entice even a single person or a family to listen to our first lesson. Here, given to us on a platter (well, after weeks of hard work), were 500 investigators pledged to listen to our program for 90 minutes. At the end we passed out about 460 Books of Mormon (in return for names and addresses). The challenge to our three zones with 26 elders and sisters on Negros Island was to follow up on this huge number of leads.

It is now over 90 days since that one day of Christmas. The resulting baptisms for the effort showed up clearly in September and continued into October. It appears about 25 new members have resulted above the normal rate of baptisms. The three Negros Island Zones, usually lagging the mission in baptisms, had a total of 40 baptisms for September. Our other seven zones combined had 51 baptisms. For missionary work July 1, 2006 was a “day of days,” a day not easily repeated. It was indeed Christmas in the Cebu Mission.

Bob Hamson