THAR SHE BLOWS!!!!

Well, my friends, we are having our first typhoon experience.  Here, they call it a Baguio [pronounced BUG-YE-OO with the emphasis on the first syllable and a long 'o' sound at the end], not to be confused with Baguio which is the resort town to our east and the current 'home' of Elder Goodson [my sweet daughter-in-laws little brother who will be coming home in a week!].

The Church has a department whose main focus is weather around the world and how it will affect the different missions and in turn, the missionaries.  Yesterday, we got notice that our island will be affected by the typhoon that is building out to sea so we are preparing...it has rained for two days and will probably continue to rain for the next 4 or 5, depending on the intensity of the storm and it's direction of travel.  We were in Cauayan last evening at the mission home as President Carlos put into action an evacuation plan-he had two young sister missionaries who were living in an area close to 'the river' and he pulled them out for fear of flooding.  They were to go to higher ground and because the first choice sister missionary apartment was housing a sick sister, they came to the mission home to stay until the storm is over.  We enjoyed their company for a game of Mexican Train dominoes before coming 'home' to Cabatuan.  I say home because on the way home last night, I was actually looking forward to coming home to OUR home and settling in for the night-it was the first time I had that 'home' feeling in this house.  A good sign...

While I was in Cauayan yesterday, Sister Carlos and I had some errands to run-Sanitary Bakery [that is it's name-they have good baked goods and our favorite bread], Sanitary Mart [the little grocery store that is owned by the same family as the bakery-let me tell you, it is far from 'sanitary' but is immaculate in comparison to some other stores],the post office, and the palenke [open air market] where 'finds' are common-if you see something here that you want, BUY IT because you may never see it again!  While we were out, I took some pictures of the field of umbrellas.  This is a tropical area and is often blessed with sudden cloudbursts so the people here all carry umbrellas to keep themselves dry but also use them in the extreme heat for instant shade.  I LOVE THE UMBRELLAS!!!  They parade down the street like a field of wildflowers and bring such great color and vibrancy to this wonderful landscape.

We also had our first experience with teaching this past week-the missionaries invited us to join them on Wednesday afternoon where we met two wonderful families.  Both live in the middle of rice fields and are farm laborers.  One thing that is so evident here is that the people are so humble and so happy!  They might have absolutely NOTHING but they want for nothing...  I thought you would like some pictures of them and the landscape so snapped a few.

Sister Ulep with Elders Naylor and Lucernos 

The Manocdoc Family

Even the street vendors have them...

This past week was also a red-letter day when the Carlos' and the Breeses came to our house for dessert and our first official game of Crud in our new home.  I kept the score sheet and it will be a fridge decor for the next two years!

One more highlight was our new pet!  I am seriously teasing but when we woke up Thursday morning, this little creature greeted us and if I had been the first to see it instead of Randy, I WOULD STILL BE RUNNING!!!

Hope you all are well and having a great life...we sure are!!!