Friday Jan. 23-30

It is another festival here in Iloilo.  We can't even get to the Center by car.  There are amazing costumes in the shopping centers.  We have had a couple of slow days but it has been helpful to get laundry done, ironing done, mending done and some cooking done.  I made some tortillas and a pork roast.  We also listened to a message from Elder Holland, "remember":  the sacrament bread, a physical suffering; the water, a spiritual suffering that caused Him to bleed from every pore.  The price He paid for me and for you.  We went to the Center for 3 or 4 hours, came home, had a snack and played our own version of Word for Word.  Read and went to bed.  We did get some more organization to our bungalow; we purchased a dish cupboard and now we don't have to think about lizards defecating or otherwise on our dishes.
Saturday we went to a "wake" for Julie Mendames' grandmother-in-law.  Julie had stayed at the mortuary all night because that is what happens when someone dies.  There is a "wake" and someone stays up with the deceased person all night until the burial.  The funeral will be next week on the 30.  While there, we visited with an Uncle who works to get volunteers to help the poor; he works out of Canada for the Christian Catholics.  He is a great guy.  He had some interesting stories.  Then we went to Arevalo and found two people who had traveled on the bus 1 1/2 hours to come to Business class and the facilitator had cancelled so we did the class.  At 4:00 we went to a convert baptism.  It was a members' husband in the San Miguel Group.  He is a great guy, actually he is a song writer.
Sunday we attended Arevalo Ward and did "My Path" with 48 attending.  We also went and visited Mandureao classes, gave them some videos and answered some business questions.  Leganes also did "My Path" with Darlyn, the north stake specialist.  We came home about 7 after we trained 7 facilitators.
Monday we bought water, picked up zone leaders for departure, Elder Cabatuando and Elder Kimball who is from Kanosh, Utah.  Elder Cabatuando is a convert and he is suppose to email me his story.  No one wrote to him on his mission for two years.  He is great material.  Then we went to Jalandoni to do some self reliance stuff;  I sent my history of my testimony home to my family; we went by McDonald's on the way home and bought four apple pies, then a yummy dinner and a walk on the Iloilo Esplanade.  It was beautiful, the temperature was perfect, the breeze was soft and gentle...Heaven on earth.
Tuesday we scrambled to do a career workshop for 14 leaving Filipino missionaries.  We didn't know until we got there that our usual guy was not coming and we did not have all the things we needed but we got it done, though we were an hour late starting.  At 11:30 Aquinos came and we drove the missionaries out to the Cagape chicken farm for a tour.  It is beautiful, besides 60,000 chickens, there are banana trees, lush green calamansi bushes... Sister Cagape fed us all a yummy lunch and sent us home with bananas and calamansi fruit!  We left the missionaries at Arevalo--feeling a little blue.  Elder Bacay our former district leader left also.  It was fun because our former and current dls and zls wanted to ride with us.  Elder Bacay will attend BYU-I probably in the fall.  His father died when he was fourteen and he is the oldest in his family, his mother was expecting.  He also has an amazing story.  Well, after 3:00 we went to pick up Boiser at the wharf and then to the Center for a meeting.  He dropped a BOMB on us.  He was suppose to bring with him 200 plus books and he brought none and said they would have to be ordered online.  It takes a long time to receive stuff here and we have five devotionals scheduled for February and no materials!  And two wards from last week cannot get all their books.  I have been really down.  Our job will be much harder now to even get the wards to do anything because until they see how it works it is hard to get them to order something they don't know will help them.  I did write to the Area Presidency.  The initiative was going so well.  Leaders were really seeing the fruits but we have only served 7/10 in one stake, 8/11 in the other stake; just barely introduced it to two districts leaderships but no branches out of 10, plus two more stakes in the upper end of the island.  What we have done really has shown progress and hope.  Well, I struggled for a couple of nights, but if that is the way the leaders in Salt Lake want it done, I will repent and The Lord will show us how to move forward.
Wednesday we met with Boiser at his hotel and talked but I was still struggling with the news and then he told us he wants us to keep him busy when he comes over to Iloilo.  After we took him to catch his boat, we went to the Center where there was a "Called to Serve" devotional.  It was great.  One Elder is going to Portugal and one Sister, Sister Evengelista from here in Mandurreao Ward is going to Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission.  After the MTC in Provo, she should be on Temple Square by March.  I told her my kids and friends would ask for her there.
Thursday we went to the Center and talked with Sarah and Raymond, big news this weekend with Boyd's baptism. And Eve's blessing.  Congratulations!  These are the first ones we have missed.  I remember how I cried when my dad wasn't there for Charity's blessing.  He died in January 1992.  That was the first one his body did not attend.  It hit me kind of hard.  Ray checked on a list of schools to visit and then we went to Arevalo to see if we could help anyone transfer but we were too late, they didn't need us anyway.  We returned to the Center, helped someone with one of the last "My Path" booklets, visited with Butch and home.
Friday we went to the Center and worked on running off four pages of the "My Path" to use with a flash drive to try to keep our commitment to the wards we have scheduled.  Each ward needs up to 50.  We just ran off 40.  The. Other stake will have to run their own off but we have it ready for them.  Then we picked up the couple missionaries from Guimeras, the Cushings at the wharf and took them to run some errands and then we met up with the Sessions couple from Antique and had lunch at the Atrium.  After we left them, we went to LaPaz wharf to pick up the few books I was able to beg off Boiser, 20 education and 50 My Path.  Home.
Keep up the good work, we are on page 210 OT on Friday.  I love you all,  Sister Robinson III, Mom, Grandma
PS. Are these getting boring?:)  We are seeing some fruits of our labors.  One brother who has a pig farm (2 sows, 1 boar) is writing his story.  He didn't know how to manage until he had the business class.  Now he keeps track of his costs and his profits, and can see opportunities to save and expand and make a real living.  He is excited and is now thinking bigger.