Hats off to Tim

We had a week of substituting for Institute.  D&C 89, 93 and the Gospel and the Productive Life!  What a challenge.  And Filipinos don't like to participate much, they talk very softly, and the language is Ilonguisg. Theirs plus ours.  It was fun though and, of course, those who come are earnest seekers of truth.  They were delightful.
But the job was stressful for us, a good exercise.  We are not coming home to apply for the job:)
We were at the Center at 5:30 am, Monday morning class was at 6:30.  No one showed up until 7.  It was a good class for us as we just went back and forth.  There were only like 7 people plus us present.  Tuesday -Thursday classes were mostly in the evening and we started on time but about half came a half hour late and a few came for the last 30 minutes.  We started with a song, prayer, spiritual thought, and announcements and a video of President Uchtdorf's conference talk on light and truth.  It was surprising that they had not heard it.  Anyway, that all took the first half hour at least for two of the classes.
Now I will back up and start where I left off last week.
Sunday we spoke in Molo 1st Ward, then Molo 2nd Ward; we took lunch to Analisa at the hospital.  Her baby, Harold had his surgery and it was a success.  They cut his scalp from ear to ear over the top, pulled down the skin and fixed the hole where it was leaking fluid in the bridge of his nose and sinuses.  I know it sounds awful.  I was so worried for her and the baby but it went well and he already looks better and seems happier.  He acts like he recognizes me.  The nice thing is that she felt The Lord taking care of her.  She needed money for blood that Harold needed so she went to the media and it was donated.  And all the medicine that the baby needed was in the hospital so that was taken care of.  And while I was out of town, the relief society and the bishop came to visit.  It was good to catch up with her when we got back into town. By the way, we gave her a candle with the scriptures to do with her family for the month of December.  We ate lunch and returned to Molo 2nd ward because the Bishop wanted My Path done at 4:00.  There were 30 in attendance.  It turned out great.  Butch went with us.  Ray had the bishop help and he did great!  We got to the bungalow about 6:30 and started working on the Institute lesson.
Monday morning about 6 came and they were all a half hour late but they had time to stay so we went a half hour later.  They wanted to visit with us.  They were all adults.  At 10 we went shopping for our Thanksgiving feast:) We have three Americans in our district so we are feeding the district, and our ward mission leader, he is a young student.  After shopping we had lunch and took a meal to Analisa, she was asleep by her baby so we just left lunch on her bed. We returned to the Center to study for the Word of Wisdom lesson section 89 D&C for tomorrow.  Then Butch texted us to meet him at the Molo church.  He was waiting for us to give us dinner.  I thought he was doing some demonstration at the church and wanted us to taste but when we got there we discovered he had made us this beautifully displayed, top of the line tasting dinner.  You can see it on Butch's facebook page.  The green leaf was totally yummy.  I will try to get his sauce recipe, it was really the best!  I felt like crying.  He is so good to us.  I am humbled by this mission experience.  I thought we came to give but we are the receivers.
Tuesday was district meeting and Elder Bacay came the last of his four lessons on how to be a great missionary.  And he knows how because he really is one. Then we gave the sisters a ride to the store and the zone leaders a ride downtown and we went to McDonalds for a big and tasty, and back to the Center to teach Institute.  Here is a question for you:  is section 89 the first time The Lord instituted a health code?  I immediately thought of Daniel and the Kings meat and strong drink vs. the Israelites code.  But then it occurred to me that Adam and Eve were prohibited from eating of the fruit and that it would cause physical and spiritual consequences...after partaking of the fruit, they were subject to death and they were cast out of His presence.  The Word of Wisdom is a physical and spiritual law also.  Just my new thought, maybe it already occurred to all of you.  April 2014 GC had a cool story about Elder Voen Hwan Choi of the Seventy.  After his mission, he had to join the service in South Korea.  It is the law.  He was assigned to the presidential guard.  Look it up and see what happened.  Also, another interesting thought came from a class member.  The question: how do we apply the blood of the Lamb that was painted over the door of the Israelites to our lives?  You know likening the scriptures to ourselves.  Answer: we partake of His flesh and blood each week during the sacrament.  I thought this pretty insightful.
Wednesday I prepared little loaf size cheese cakes for Thanksgiving.  We studied again for Institute D&C 93 then went to the hospital again.  Jeffrey, her husband came to pick them up to go home.  But I just had gotten there about 5 minutes before and had brought her a small children's songbook from Sister Walton and the candle with scriptures for her to do with her husband and other three children at home during December.  If we had waited, we would have missed them.  We are getting better at quiet small promptings.
We visited our 91 year old but I don't think she is ready.  We asked her to set a time to get ready.  I don't know.  We have done all we can.  Any way, we got stuck in a deep ditch and had to be pulled out.  We tried to visit Elder Finau but we didn't know where he lived and the Elders didn't know we were in a hurry, so we will go tomorrow.  We went to the Institute to teach again.  There were 20 there, three were recent converts, 1 - 11 months, 1 - 9 months, 1 - 1 month and one non member.  I hope we were clear windows of His Light and Truth.
Thursday we hurried to the store and picked up some probiotics for Elder Finau and went to visit him.  He said it felt like his parents had come.  He has decided to go home and get well and then go wherever to finish his mission after that.  He has tried so hard.  He really is a great guy but this is not a good place to get sick and get medical help.  This is the second missionary we have seen go home sick just while we have been here.  We returned to the bungalow to fix noodles with vegetables, brown rice was already cooked and we purchased some chickens cooked over charcoal.  We had store-bought rolls and the cheesecake for dessert.  We also had a mix of chippies like chex mix except there aren't any chex here:). We made our own mix.  After we ate, the missionaries peeled carrots, cut up onions, red peppers, cabbage and stir fried it, added noodles and we boxed it all up and took to three families that they had picked out and talked with and drove to their homes with the hot dinner and a jello dessert and a drink.  Then the missionaries went tracting from there.  We finished and hurried to the Institute for our last class of the week.
Friday we went to the Center, then to the dock to pick up self reliance pamphlets and books from the boat, returned to the Center to put it all away and helped a sister student with registering for a PEF loan for second semester.  At least we called and got help.  We had leftovers for dinner:) and are getting ready for tomorrow.  We were able to get a load of wash in this morning and had it hanging to dry all day.
Yesterday was perfect weather for all those people in here.  It rained all day and kept the temperature to probably 75, quite nice.  So with all that cooking, it was very helpful.
Saturday we had a community service project at a catholic school.  We painted, cut grass,  and raked leaves.  It is always fun to be with the missionaries.  We cooked potatoes for my birthday with butter, sour cream, chives, and cheese and had a steak from the US.  It was almost a quarter of an inch thick.  It was all we could find.
We went to McDonalds and had apple pie a la mode, split it:) so nobody has to worry about my weight:).  Tomorrow is fast Sunday for the mission, first, third, and fifth Sundays.
That's been our week.  We love you.  Make sure you don't try to send anything except e mails.  Things don't get here.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Mom, Sister Robinson