Fun in Lamac

Sunday, March 18, 2007

What a wonderful day! We left home about 6:45 A.M. and drove over the TransCentral Highway with its beautiful views of both the east and west coasts of Cebu Island and picturesque views of the mountains and valleys in between. We then drove down the west coast to the Toledo Elder’s apartment where we dropped off a package for Elder VanderVeen, Zone Funds and rent contracts and payments (all in cash as the banking system on the west coast of the island is not ‘very developed’ yet.) We continued down the west coast to Pinamungahan and then turned east and up into the hills to Lamac. The road had recently been graded and was much better than we remembered.

The members in Lamac always welcome us so warmly – it is a privilege to go there. After attending Relief Society, I taught the older children in Primary. They have a new teacher, but she had nothing prepared and was just going to read them the Manual – any old Primary manual from the looks of things. The Primary President, Sister Pepito, was happy to have me do it and wanted the teacher to watch and get some ideas. I had prepared the lesson that was scheduled for today on The 12 Apostles at the time of Jesus and Today. We had a great time and the children were very cooperative and attentive. The only one who was sad was John Boy, who has now turned 12 and they came and got him to go with the Young Men. He wanted to stay in with us! I had prepared a matching game by enlarging, duplicating and laminating 2 copies of the photos of the 12 Apostles today. We placed the pictures face down on the floor (no table in the room, nor room for one during sharing time when all the children are in the classroom). Apparently they had never played a matching game like this and it took a few turns for them to figure it out. Then they really had fun, thinking they remembered where one was and then laughing if they were wrong and applauding each other when they were right. My goal was to familiarize them with the names and pictures and it turned out to be a fun way to do it.

We also reviewed the difference between a disciple and an apostle and decided which one we were. We sang together and went over the Sixth Article of Faith and read in the New Testament about Jesus calling his Apostles. The class ended all too soon.

They asked Bob and me to speak in Sacrament meeting and we gave very short talks after the assigned speakers – the two elders – finished. I talked about forgiveness. A big thrill in the meeting was to see Brother Morera bless the sacrament from his wheelchair. He has had a wheelchair now for many months and has faithfully been coming to Church and is a much needed Priesthood holder in this small branch. The branch is growing with over 60 in attendance today. They had 12 young women in attendance but only 3 young men and only 5 adult men (not counting Bob and the two missionaries.)

We drove home a new way north up the center of the island on a narrow dirt road. Most of it had been recently graded so it wasn’t bad. We saw beautiful valleys, many rice fields and much rice spread out along the sides of the road to dry. A large lake was over against the hills in one valley, the first lake I have seen except for the ones beneath waterfalls. It looked very inviting until I remembered all the elders’ stories about water snakes. We also saw many men and boys clambering around in the mud and water of one rice paddy. They were wacking the water with large sticks, after snakes? We don’t know.

We began to wonder if we had taken the right road, but after 8 kilometers, we came to a big east-highway and headed east to Naga and then north along the coast (which takes us by way of my favorite road along the Cebu harbor) to home.