P-Day Activity at the Bowling Alley

This is a big bowling alley in Dagupan and several zones made a plan to be there on the last P-Day before transfers the first part of June. A happy crew!

Elder Titensor, Karlson and St. Martin were all headed home soon, and will all attend BYU! They are all part of the same "batch" (meaning they came out together and go home together).

Elder Kinghorn, Woodson, (Lingayen Zone) Kurczodyna and Flanigan (Mangaldan Zone) are part of the happy crowd!!

Elder Mundo, Espinosa, Ramiro (one of our ZL's) and Cumurat enjoy the activity along with all the other elders in attendance. All are from Mangaldan except Espinosa who use to be in our zone but is now in Lingayen Zone.

Cris Bautista's Birthday

This is Cris Bautista's Birthday and we treated hem to pizza at our favorite place--Shakeys! She is a recent convert and a very special person to us because we were in on all her lessons but the very first one! She was so ready for the gospel. She always had very sincere questions. It was a joy to participate in her teaching appointments. (Her husband, Fernan had been a member for a while.)

We really love her and her husband Fernan. She was baptized in April and asked Rick do perform the baptism. It was a great honor for him. She is expecting a baby in August--their first. She is like a daughter to me, we are very close to them. Elder St. Martin was the elder teaching here when we started (he was in between companions till transfer day so we went with him).

Filipino Mom's with Their Children

These sweet ladies let me take a picture of them with their children. They live along the beach and were just out along the shoreline visiting with each other--or maybe watching the crazy "Americana's" taking pictures of the beach?

Cute kids!

Bamboo Raft

I have been trying to get a close up of a bamboo raft--here it is!

We see these every where there is water. I think they are fairly cheap and easy to make. Bamboo here is very plentiful, they use it for all kinds of things. They make beautiful chairs, couches, tables and entertainment centers out of bamboo plus I am sure a host of things I don't even know about.

Looking Back to the Shore

Cute Filipino kids along the beach. These girls look very happy but shy posing for the picture.

Houses along the beach.

This little Filipino girl was so cute I had to get her picture.

Shots Along the Beach

More shots along the beach. I think the Filipinos didn't understand our fascination with the beach, it is everyday life to them, nothing out of the ordinary.

You can see by the waves in the water it was blowing really hard that day.

Bringing in the boat.

This is what it looks like when they are hauling in the nets. It isn't a job or one man.

Dagupan Beach

This is a look along the shoreline of Dagupan Beach

Bringing in the boat.

A Boy and His Dog

I looked along the shoreline of the beach and I saw this beautiful but simple shot of a boy and his dog.

This is just one of those pictures that capture you. I can't explain it, he looks so happy, peaceful and completely content just watching all the commotion on the beach from afar with his dog. Happy to just watch the excitement, not needed to participate.

He didn't wave and show-off like so many of them do when they know you are taking their picture (Filipinos love their picture taken), I guess that's what made this shot extra special.

Pulling in the Net

This is the beach at Dagupan. Believe it or not this was our first look at a beach here. We stopped on our way back from a meeting with Pres. & Sis. Jensen and there was a bunch of men pulling in a net. I didn't get close enough to get a shot of them pulling it in even though it took them a long time to get it to the beach.

This is the crowd that gathered as the net came it. They all acted like this was a great event. Maybe it was--it contained dinner.
They are all gathered round checking out the catch.

If you look closely there are lots of little fish and one really big one, an older man just reached in and took the big fish. I don't know how they decide who gets what but no one challenged him for the fish. there were so many people there if they "shared and shared alike" no one had a very big meal. We couldn't understand what they were saying so we have no idea how it ended up. Maybe all the people that live along the beach just help a certain fisherman pull in his net. The Filipino people are very good about helping each other out when help is needed, not expecting any pay in return.

Our Lady of Manaoag

This is the famous Lady of Manaoag church, in the town of Manaoag (surprise, surprise!). The story goes that a farmer had a vision and saw her in a tree and she told him to build her a church on that spot--so here it is!

We look a little flushed but you would too, there is no air conditioning in any of this property and in case you didn't know--it is HOT here! We are standing in the chapel where you can see her statue in the back ground.

She is suppose to be Mary holding her baby.

In the museum and in this chapel there are many elaborate displays which seems very odd to me, especially in a country where the people could have benefited greatly from the money spent here. This Catholic church is famous all over the Philippines. The Filipino people come from all over the Philippines believing she will perform miracles for them when they pray to her.

Chess anyone?

This is just a sample of the things that Joel Dango does--this is a chess set he is making for one of the Baguio missionaries.

Some Chess set huh? Wonder what they are going to use for the board?

Chess anyone?

Our Amazing Wood Carver

This is Joel Dango and his family, he is the wood carver that we have had make us several items. He truly is a very talented young man. He told me his father taught him. He can carve anything you give him a picture of with such detail it amazes me. We have seen many different items and they are all very impressive. They live in a little town or village on the way up to Baugio, right off the side of the hill. They are very active members of the church.

Amazing Night Sky in Mangaldan!

This was what we saw in the night sky outside our apartment in May
Our zone leaders sent us a text and asked us "What is that in the sky?" Rick being an astrology buff was outside in a heartbeat. We couldn't believe our eyes! It was truly amazing. When we went outside this is what we say. It looked like a ring with a diamond at the top I thought. The little dot above the black is a planet, we think Venus (we could be wrong of course!)
As soon as we went outside our zone leaders were at our apartment checking it out too. The sister missionaries in Manaoag were on their way to an appointment when they saw it and text the ZL's. We were inside and would have missed it if they hadn't alerted us. There were several of our Filipino neighbors outside looking at it as well. They didn't know what is was and Rick was explaining what he thought it was.
We couldn't get a really good picture of it with our cameras so we found this on line the next day. It said in the article that is was rare. We think it was just the crescent moon with the planet just above it in just the right position. Whatever it was--it was fascinating to watch!!

People Mover

This is a familiar sight here, a truck packed full of people. Most of the time it is people who are on their way to work at a certain destination and then are brought back to their original pick up point.

This is more up close and personal. We have seen some with lots of the plastic chairs they have here in the Philippines with people sitting on them and even some with a second layer of people sitting on the floor of the truck. We have seen some with as many as 50 people in it.