Email May 23, 2009

Hi Everyone! I have decided to write an email of Gratitude. We have so much to be thankful for. I was looking around at all the things I could write about and having a hard time deciding how to put this together. Here’s hoping it turns out! We are so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us ordinances to direct our lives by and the opportunity to share it people that will listen. We shared our first Book of Mormon on our own this part week. We have been going to a lady by the name of Charito for my hand and Elder Adams ankle. She has been using herbs and do some massaging on them. It has helped a little. Last Monday while we were at her home I asked her if she knew about our church. She said a little, but her daughter and 3 children that was visiting from Manilla didn’t know much. I asked her if we could share a little message on wed when we came. She said that would be fine. We have a problem still with the language so we invited Katherine Agreda to come with us. We studied all morning and talked about different game plans. Katherine was going to come early and help us decided our message. She is a return missionary. She didn’t come early, so we had a prayer and went in the house. Charito massaged my hand and Elder Adams ankle, now it was time for the message. A lady came and needed her hand massaged. She had hurt it earlier. We waited for her to finish. Elder Adams gave a quick overview of the restoration, Katherine translated and filled in the blanks, I offered the Book of Mormon and said my testimony in Ilonggo. They said “Salamat(thanks) they will read in it after they get their work done.”( I thought when does mothers ever get their work done.) Katherine said the daughter was really interested . She knows some people that are members. We will stay in touch and see what happens. We are grateful for our bodies even if right now they are having issues. We saw a man the other day that was walking down the side of the road. He had no legs or should I say he had only stumps. There was enough of a stump for him to put shoes/slippers on them. He looked like he was about late 20’s. We meet a member of the church in San Enrique that has club feet(no toes).. I was amazed she had flip flops on and was walking in them. They had a strap at the heel to help keep them on .We are grateful for food. We have seen lots of people going through the garbage taking items out to keep. We had a lady with two small children dressed in dirty clothing asking for money at the bus station. It is so sad because you know that they are really poor and could use the help. The missionaries have said don’t start giving or you will regret it. They tell others and when they see you again the amount of beggers have doubled. We also have children that run along the side of the truck asking for money in certain areas. We have decided to get some small candies and hand them out. We all need to be grateful for transportation to go places like church. Most of the members here use the tricycles or motorcycles with side carts to get to church. They are miserable when it is raining hard(you get wet) some have tarps or plastic sheeting to help keep the people dry. We gave the new R.S. President a ride to church last week at Moises Padilla. She walks several miles every week to go to church and several miles to go back home. She doesn’t have the money to pay for a ride. Some walk several miles from the mountain area to get a ride to go the rest of the way to church. No wonder they have a hard time getting to church on time when it rains!!!! We are grateful we didn’t have air conditioning back home so we were a little use to being hot. We are grateful for our air conditioner in our bedroom we have on every night! There are a lot of people that have only a fan motor with a blade hanging in the middle of their room to help cool it. People here are so kind when we go in their homes or even at some of the stores, they will turn a fan so it hits us if they have one they can adjust. I am thankful for the air blowing most of the time because it is so hot and humid. We are grateful we could help the Pacheo family buy the medicine their 7 month baby needed, and Elder Adams had extra reading glasses he could give to Nilo Pacheo so he could see to fix a TV so he could sell it and use the money to take their baby to the doctor. I so grateful I have all my teeth and am able to get the dental care I have needed. So many people here are missing lots of teeth. Small children with teeth that are decaying away. I've seen dental clinics, so they must not have the money to go to them only to get their teeth pulled out. We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Mascaso family baptism. This is a family of mom, dad and 6 children. The Dad, Mom and 4 children were baptized to day in La Castellana. The river in MoisesPadilla was too muddy to have the baptism there. The parents have not been able to afford to get married because of the price of the marriage license. The missionaries mentioned it to us to help come up with a plan to help them. So the family worked at the church helping clean and we hired the dad to bulid us a night table to put by our bed. It turned out to be alot bigger than a night stand but is really nice.We were happy to get it and they were happy to get the money, so they could get married and then baptized. Time to get to bed! Thankful for a nice soft bed to sleep on and pillow! I could go on and on now I got started. Oh yes! There is a day care center we are helping to clean up so it can start have classes in June. They are in need of books for small children if any of you would like to donate some. I am going to see if their is anyone in need of an eagle project in my home ward to do this. They have a litle money to help with shipping. So maybe you could go through your books and donate some. Palangga lolo and lola/Elder and Sister Adams The Mission pres said we are to call each other by our missionary name at all times at our last zone meeting.