Maayong Gabii(good evening), Jan 19, 2010 I decided to write and tell you about the San Carlos area in this email. I think I already told you we are on the other side of the island of Negros Occidental from Bacolod City. I understand on a clear day you can look across the ocean and see the island of Cebu. We are living in the same house that the senior couple, Elder and Sister Folsom, lived in. We really like how it is located in the center of town. We can walk to church, market, the small mall or if the weather is really raining we can take a pedicab for 5-6 peso each. We both barely fit in the seat! They are built for the small Filipino people. The pedicabs(as they call them here) are a different style than in La Carlota.I hope I can get a picture to attach to show you. We have a huge fish tank in our front yard we take care of as well as a small dog, Beanie, as part of our rent. We have cement everywhere except for one small 2ftx3ft area. We bought some dirt and planted 4 plants. We do have two trees that are in the yard and some that grow next door. To give you an idea of how much larger the house is here than La Carlota: I jogged 18 steps in La Carlota and in San Carlos I jog 30 steps and then turn around. The weather here is similar to La Carlota except for the humidity. The humidity is higher here, so we are not looking forward to April when it gets really hot! We are not totally sure what we will be doing here. The mission president has asked us to help get the members prepared for the Cebu temple by teaching temple prep classes. He has also asked us to help with leadership training. We have talked to the district president and he was suppose to call us last week to set up a plan of action. He has not called us yet. We did a FHE in Vallehermoso on Monday night which is about a 30 minute drive from San Carlos. It was held at a family’s home in their backyard. This family has 12 children and the mother is expecting number 13. We didn’t know until after the lesson that the family are investigators. They offered to have it and we had over 30 people that came to it. We focused on families and how important it is that they all work together to keep the relationships close together. I took brownies and talked about how I had to use a receipe to make them so they turned out good. Would they turn out good if I just threw in a little of this and a little of that and 5 eggs? No ,we need to do certain things so they will turn out. Then we talked about prayer, scriptures, etc. Then we played the game “ Cops and Robbers”: everybody sits in a circle , you have two hankies, you tie one with one knot and then pass it to the left, you start the other hankie at a different person and you tie it with two knots. They both start at the same time and the goal is not to be the one that they both end up at. The person that it ended up at I had them say what lesson they could learn from the hankies catching each other. The first person was really shy and wouldn’t say much. The next turn ended up with the branch president being caught with both hankies. He talked about setting goals and having unity. It was really fun! Then we played three more games. We the losers getting black painted on their faces from a cooking pot. We did another FHE tonight at the Mapan family. They have 6 children . The youngest are twin boy and girl. It was really crowded in their small hut, but we had fun playing games and singing. I was talking about the importants of saying daily prayers, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed a rat running along the ceiling beam. It stopped on the beam so it was straight across from where I was sitting. It looked down at us and then ran out of the hut. I never missed a beat which was a surprise to me! We were getting ready to leave when the father came home, so we stayed long and the sister missionaries had to go to another appointment. We talked with him about the importance of attending church meetings. He told us how hard it is here in the Philippines to make a living so he has to work on Sunday. We encouraged him test our Heavenly Father by committing to not work during the time of meetings and attend church. We had him read D&C 82:10. He read it three times and then smiled. He said he would go to church next Sunday. We hope he will since he is in the elder’s quorum presidency. It was kind of funny because by now the twins (ages 2yrs) had taken off their bottoms. I kept thinking the boy was going to pee on someone or something!! He never did while we were there. Surprise, surprise , surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I attached a picture of us dancing with an apple between our foreheads. We lost the contest. They also like to do this with small tomatoes. I also attached a picture of a sunset. They are so beautiful. My camera doesn't do it justice. The picture of us with the falls is the area we pass on our way through the mountains to Bacolod from San Carlos. It is a 2 hour drive. During the day it is beautiful and at night it is a little scary because of all the curves in the road especially if it is raining. The fog or low clouds come in so it is hard to see very far. We pass a statue of a lion that we call the Lion King. We haven't figured out why it is there.I hope I can find the picture and attach it. We love you all and thanks so much for your help and support and prayers! They are working!!!!!!!!!!!Elder and Sister Adams
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