Sibonga Visit

Sunday, February 19, 2006

We went to Sibonga Branch today. It is the farthest south unit of the Church on Cebu Island. It is about two thirds of the way down the island. It is in a very peaceful farming area along the coast with low hills to the west. The area along the east coast south of Cebu City seems more prosperous than north of the city, and also more so than the west coast. We saw two big cement plants, a steel mill and another big factory that I couldn’t figure out what was. We also saw a power plant. All of these provide employment to people in the area.

Sibonga is a small branch, about 45 were in attendance today. They meet in a rented house that is quite adequate for their needs. We arrived an hour early, not being sure what the roads would be like we left home at 6 A. M. and only took two hours to get there. (It took about 2 ½ to get home as there was much more traffic on the road.

They asked us both to speak in Church – I shared my testimony in Visayan and Bob talked about Jesus Christ. Then I went to Primary. The Primary President taught the older children, and the Second Counselor in the Branch Presidency taught the younger ones. He had put pictures about the lesson in his shirt pocket and would pull out one at a time and talk about it. He was sitting knee to knee with the children and they loved it. I then went to Relief Society, which was held on the porch right outside the Primary window. I could look in and see all the children leaving and going outside to play or run down the street. I went back to Primary and pulled out paper and crayons and a chart of the Plan of Salvation and got the three girls who were still in the room working on that. Soon there were 7 more children wanting to do it and before long all the children were back in the room working away and coloring and labeling their charts. Even the little ones had crayons and were working away. They took the rest of the hour (and a little more) to finish and were so proud of their work. They showed their parents and were waving their papers around. I encouraged the Primary President to plan more activities as a part of sharing time and to get paper and crayons from the budget.

One little boy was especially cute, and especially wild. When I came in from Relief Society, I left my scriptures, by mistake, out on the porch on the step. I called him over to the window and then I picked him up and showed them to him and asked him if he could go get them for me. He ran off and pretty soon was back, lugging my very heavy scriptures. He was so proud of himself, and after that he was my friend and stayed right by me – I think he figured I needed a lot of help!