Email sent June 30, 2009

June 25, 2009How is everyone? We are doing great! We finally made it home after spending four days on the island of Panay. Monday through wed was planned. The extra day was because of Tropical Strom Frecia(? How they spelled it). Pres and Sister Daquioag planned a senior couples reunion at the zone conference in Panay. The Baker’s are residing on the island so the Pres decided we would go meet them and have a little R&R. We boarded the ferry to Iloilo at 9am. This ferry was a lot like an airplane on the inside. It had seats like an airplane has and was totally enclosed. The boat ride was 1 ½ hour long. We arrived about 10:30am and the Baker’s and the Elders were waiting for us. We went and got something to eat at Mcdonald’s and talked about the plan for the day. We loaded what we needed in the Ap’s van and they took the Baker’s truck until we got back. We drove up to the northern end of the island to the city of Roxas. We were hungry when we got there because it took a while. We ate at a really nice seafood restaurant . They had fish in tanks and you picked out which fish you want. They catch them, cleaned, and cook them. Steve had blue marlin fish and I had huge shrimp. It was really good! Then we went to the stake pres.’s house there in Roxas. He is a painter and does oil painting of scenes in the Philippines and some really neat ones of Christ. We got the information and will be able to order some if we want to. Our next adventure was exactly that! We went out to the seashore to board a boat to go out to a private resort. The problem we ran into was it was low tide when we got there. That means the water had gone out in the ocean so the boat couldn’t come into to shore very far. Since the water was out that meant we had to climb down a skinny ladder to the muddy water and wade out to the boat. When we first started out it was a little muddy and wet, the further out we went the deeper the water got. When we arrived at the boat the water was up to our knees. Pres Daquioag had and infection on his leg so he wasn’t able to get it wet, so three young men carried him out to the boat. It was quite the sight! I decided that day to wear by blue lightweight dress because it is nice and cool. It turned out to be quite a problem wading in the water since it hits just above my ankles. The young men that carried the Pres. out to the boat also carried our luggage out for us. Thank goodness! It was a really nice ride out to the island. The boat was all open with a canopy over the top. When we got to the island well the tide was still out so we had to wade to the shore, but not as far. This island is privately owned by a family. The mother is a member of the church and knows the Daquioag. They had our rooms already for us. Our room was in a cottage shaped like a big boat up on stilts. We had to cross a bridge to get to it. It had a deck that went around it and the deck was built around existing trees. It had an Anniversary Inn feel to it, but not as furnished through! We did have toilet paper, towel only, sm soap, cold shower, and 4 twin beds. They fixed us a wonderful seafood dinner, veg. salad with a dressing on it, sm. Crabs, squid, milk fish grilled, some other kind of fish, and of course rice! The next morning we got up and meet at 7am for breakfast. We had rice, eggs, fish, and a veg combination sauce. We walked around the island in about 30 mins. They have large( maybe I should say huge )bats that hang from the trees. They were quite high up thank goodness! They also have some unique herring birds. The island was quite dense with foliage and large trees. The feeling as we went through the dense parts was like we were Tarzen and Jane, only we didn’t have the vines to swing with and the jungle dress! When we got back the water was back to high tide. I could see why they had the bridges and the cottages were on stilts. It was so beautiful! We had such a nice relaxing time just sitting around sharing missionary experiences! It started to rain so we loaded up from the dock and went back to the main island. We were able to climb out of the boat to the dock. High tide really made a difference. We next went to a town and I’m not sure of the name. We went and seen the largest bell in Asia. It is in a catholic church. We had to climb up 6 flights of stairs. When it was built the people in the village donated money that they melted down to make the bell. We took some pictures of it. When then went back to the city of Iloilo. We stayed in the Century 21 Hotel for 1025 pesos(about $22). The Pres and wife stayed in a Days Inn. The cheapest room was 3000 pesos($62.50) Our’s wasn’t as fancy but had hot showers and a soft bed. We went to the big SM mall shopped and had a nice dinner. Wed we went to Zone conference at the Stake center in Iloilo. All of the missionaries on Panay came to it. I think there were about 90 missionaries including all of us. It was really fun to see the missionaries we knew that are serving on Panay. We had great talks, a nice lunch, entertainment from the Tongan missionaries, and all the missionaries sang a special song to Pres and his wife. It was really touching. Pres and Sister Daquioag will be released from their mission on July 1. We found out after the meeting that the ferry wasn’t selling tickets to go back to Bacolod because of the storm, so we spent another night on the island. We went down to the docks the next morning at 5:30am so we could get the first ferry out. Pres had to cancel the Zone conference at Bacolod until Friday since we couldn’t get back in time. We went and picked up the truck at the ford dealership. They called the office and said it was ready for pick up. They did a bunch of things to it we didn’t ask to be done, fixed the broken door, and that’s it. The brakes have to be ordered. It worked out okay for us. We are now driving the new truck that Manilla sent over to replace our Nissan. It is really nice! Friday we drove back to Bacolod for our zone conference. There were about 110 missionaries. It was about the same program. The office elders made a video with missionaries saying thank you and goodbyes. Some of them were really funny. Well I need to go and see if I can get this emailed. I want to make sure everyone knows that we were in missionary dress the whole time and we did do some “OYM”(open your mouth) while we were out and about and tried not to look too much like tourists! Palangga Ta Namon! We love you! Elder and Sister Adams