Another Week in Paradise

Time goes screaming past, it is unbelievable. Since our last post on our blog we have experienced so many new and wonderful things.  We were able to have our Mission President and his family here for a few days.  President and Sister Ostler are amazing and they have the greatest spirit about them.  We were able to participate in the District Conference here in Puerto Princesea where Elder Wolcott was sustained as Executive Secretary for the Philippines Manila Mission.  It was incredible to be at District Conference to see the devotion and excitement of the members of the church and they love to learn and grow. They participate with their all their hearts.

Filipino children in Tay Tay

 The greatest resource that Philippine has is their people. The people are so kind, so happy, so inviting and loving.  The more we get to know the people the more excited we are that we get to be here to experience the “love of others” in the Philippines.

We had a zone activity on Monday and watched a movie called “17 Miracles", it is very inspirational.  Some of the missionaries are descendants from individuals that were talked about in the movie.  The movie helped the missionaries understand that everyone can do difficult things and they can still go onward to do their very best.  When life gets tough it is still important to go onward and upward.

This is the Puerto Princesa Zone, It's exciting to work with these great Elders and Sisters.
Each of them have amazing stories!

This past weekend we were able to watch the General Conference that was held in Salt Lake City, UT the weekend before.  We are a day ahead here in the Philippines so we watch conference a week late. It was exciting to hear the new apostles talk.  We really liked the talk by Brother Stanfill about the Hiawatha Trail.  The trail is in part of the forest that Elder Wolcott helped manage when we were in St. Maries, Idaho.  We have been to the tunnels and trestles in that area more than once, it is a beautiful area to bike in.  The trail goes for over 70 miles. 

This past weekend we went to TayTay (pronounced TieTie) to watch conference with the members there and to see if we could help out the missionaries in that area.  Here are some pictures of some of the things were saw.  It is a beautiful place with a lot of history.

The Northern sky at Tay Tay
close to Sunset on Saturday.
This is the Sulu Sea

Sunrise on Monday at Tay Tay near the harbor entrance.

A boy from the fishing village collecting clams from the harbor

Fort Santa Isabel constructed by Spain in 1667

Since Monday was our P-Day we used some time to go exploring.  We went to El Nido which is a resort area on the beach.  They have many tours that tourist go on including island hopping. We went to get a feel for what was there so maybe when some people come to visit we can go on a tour. 

Tour boats in El Nido Monday Morning. This is the South China Sea.