"Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things..."

Thanksgiving Day came and went as any other day here.  It is through and through, an American Red, White and Blue holiday that is not celebrated anywhere else, certainly not in the Philippines.  We were on a ferry headed back to Bohol from Cebu on Thanksgiving Thursday because we had just spent 3 days at the temple.

Quisto Family

Two families we knew were sealed in the temple and we had gone over to support them.

Maceren Family

                       





But we decided that we had to have some kind of celebration.  So the next day we talked to our sister missionaries about it.  The conversation went like this:

Me: "Hey, did you get to celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday?"

Them: "No.  We tried to get the Elders to do something after our Zone mtg. but they didn't want to do anything." :-(

Me: "Well, Elder Caycayon and I have an idea.  We'll prepare Thanksgiving dinner if you'll invite some of your investigators over to join us and then teach them about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it in America. What do you think about that?"

Them: "Oh, Sister Caycayon, we love you guys (lots of hugs).  You are the best! Yes, yes, yes!!"
Them: "How many can we invite?  We have 3 for sure (TagB2 sisters).  We have 1 for sure (TagB1 sisters)"

Me:"Just let us know by Saturday so we can buy all the food before Sunday."

Tagbilaran Missionaries

And so we planned for our non-Traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  There are no turkeys (only live ones that live across the street that I would like to SHOOT because they "gobble, gobble, gobble" all the time) or pumpkin.  So in place of turkey we had Lechon Manok (Barbecued roasted chicken). For our Filipino brothers and sisters we made rice and a bico dessert. And for our  sister missionaries we made mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, tossed green salad (this is a treat because you don't often get a nice green salad), Elder Caycayon's homemade butter rolls, and cherry crisp w/ vanilla ice cream replaced the pumpkin pie.

Our meal was planned for 5:00, the sisters arrived @5:30 and most of our guests arrived around 6:30pm. (Filipino time is twice as long as Hawaiian time) But they all came and we were so happy that they were there. We had 2 investigators, and 2 that were scheduled for baptism, plus 4 sister missionaries, 3 members who had brought the investigators, and us in our little apartment.

The sisters were chomping at the bit to get at the food. It was Fast Sunday and they were hungry, but I have to say that they held themselves back with great dignity to let the others go first. Our guests tentatively took a little salad and mashed potatoes to be polite.  Then we let the sisters loose and all we heard were "ohs and ahs" and squeals of delight.

"Oh, mashed potatoes, we haven't had mashed potatoes in like forever!"
"He made fresh rolls! We LOVE YOU Elder Caycayon!"
"A GREEN SALAD!  We LOVE YOU Sister Caycayon!"
"Corn on the cob!!  Why don't we ever make corn on the cob? Because it's too expensive!"
"This is so lami! (delicious)"
"You had how many rolls?!? That's not fair, I only had two!"

Soon I noticed our Filipino sisters coming back for more mashed potatoes and rolls.  They were putting the mashed potatoes in the rolls and enjoying it so much who was I to tell them we don't usually eat our mashed potatoes that way.

After dinner we sang a hymn, had a prayer and then I told them about the first Thanksgiving and the reason we celebrate the holiday.  The sister missionaries gave a lesson based on a talk on gratitude that was given by Pres. Monson and then everyone shared one thing they were thankful for - family, friends, serving a mission, life, trials and most importantly the Atonement of our Savior and the love of our Heavenly Father.  Closing prayer and then dessert! 

It is a Thanksgiving we'll never forget.  The sister missionaries were thankful for a meal that had some of their favorite foods that they hadn't eaten in a while.  The Filipino sisters and brethren were thankful for the new things they were able to taste and enjoy and we were thankful to have them in our home and to see their joy in the simple meal we prepared.  We were all thankful for the Spirit we felt as we shared our gratitude for the blessings received.

That night I thought of the many things I am thankful for.  No, let me rephrase that. I thought of the many relationships I am thankful for.  In eternity things will not matter but relationships will.  They have been and will be the source of my greatest blessings and joy.  I am thankful for these:

My personal relationship with my Father in Heaven, knowing that He is truly my Father, the Father of my spirit and that I am His daughter and that I can pray and He will hear and answer my prayers.
My personal  relationship with my Savior, my Eternal Father, who through His wondrous Atonement gives me Eternal Life. I am learning more each day how much He loves me as I see His hand in my life each day.
My relationship with my eternal companion which grows richer everyday as we serve each other and serve others each day.
My relationships with my family and friends. How I treasure them and am so grateful to have been blessed to have them in my life.

The wonderful thing about missionary work is that you get to expand your circle of relationships.  You get to add a 16 yr. old sister who has such a strong testimony of the gospel that she is willing to wait 2 yrs to get baptized because she can't get her mother's permission until then.  Or a sister missionary that has just been through Super Typhoon Yolanda and experienced things no 19 year old should experience. She had been given an option to go home having served an honorable mission but chose instead to stay.  Heavy rain makes her uneasy and brings back memories but she still goes out in the rain to find and teach.  Or a group of RS sisters that are having so much fun learning the hula and the laughter as they try to 'ami or kaholo for the first time.

Pres. Tanner made a profound statement in our Zone Conference today.  He said, "You are the last army."  Elder Echo Hawk said, "You are part of this historic moment in the Church of the Lord's hastening His work."  His wife said, "We are preparing for the 2nd Coming of the Lord." 

What can I say to encourage you all to be part of this historic moment except what was shared by one of our missionaries in Zone conference.  "Missionary work is love."  Simple truth. 

 Jagna District (one of two districts we take care of)

We thank God for all of our blessings and the privilege He has given us to serve a mission. We love missionary work.  We love serving here.  We love the people and the relationships we are forming.  We love our young missionaries.  We love all of you. Te atua pu, Nahigugma mi inyoha! Elder and Sister Caycayon

 P.S.
We thought the Kaona's were going to the St. George Mission.  Are you sure?  If they are going to St. George why are they opening a restaurant in Cebu?



Huh?!?

Tender Mercies

I was going to start my blog writing "I am sitting in the dark..." because we have been without electricity for the last 3 days, but when we came home from church after being filled with spiritual light, we found our home filled with "light" light. Having experienced Iniki we were prepared for many candlelit dinners but the Lord in His tender mercies was kind to us. We were told by the landlady the govt. will be rationing electricity to 3 hrs. a day for the next 46 days, enough time for the pumps to work so that we can get water. I was wondering what I was going to write about because so much has happened in the last 3 weeks, but I think I will begin here...

"But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."1Nephi:120

Elder Bednar said, "I believe...that the Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ."

These past 3 weeks we have experienced most if not all of these blessings.  Let me list just some of the tender mercies shown by our loving Heavenly Father to us and the people of Bohol.

First a tender mercy of loving-kindness and protection was given the children of Bohol. The earthquake happened during a Muslim holiday and school was not in session.  It happened around 8:15am.  School starts @7:00am and the classes would have been filled with children.

Over 70% of the schools were damaged.  25 were totally destroyed.  This school in Sagbayan will have to be torn down and completely rebuilt.  How grateful we are that the children were spared.

Two of the 7 groups of Mormon Helping Hands of over 1,000 volunteers of  members and all of the missionaries from the Philippines Cebu East Mission.  The red and white groups were sent to Sagbayan about a 2 hr bus ride from the city of Tagbilaran. The red group cleared roads and sidewalks of dirt and debris near the municipality while the white group cleaned out the marketplace.  Then together we cleaned the elementary School. We're part of the white group.

Another tender mercy given of protection.

This brother belongs to the Inabanga Br.  He rides his bike to church every Sunday and arrives there before everyone else to open the building.  He is in his 70's and his home is about 5 miles away from the chapel.  It is not a motorbike.  It is a bicycle.  You can see it in the background.  A bike with a little red cart attached to it.

His house was completely destroyed but he still rides his bike to church every Sunday

This portion of the house is where the kitchen was located in the Buscato home.

I was standing in the kitchen learning how to cook pansit from Sis. Buscato the day before the earthquake. Their beautiful home is no longer safe and will have to be completely torn down.  I asked Sis. Buscato, "What will you do? Where will you go?"  She pointed to a little shed that they used to dry coconuts and said, "We will live there."  No crying over the loss of their home of 50 years or for all the beautiful things they had accumulated over that time.  Just immense gratitude for being safe.  One funny note:  We walked into the house to get some clothes and a mattress.  By the front door hung a beautiful ornamental mirror, untouched, like nothing catastrophic had happened.  A beautiful untouched mirror reflecting the debris and destruction all  around it.

Our wonderful missionaries, waiting patiently in the rain to hear an Apostle of the Lord

Elder Neil  L. Andersen greeting the members of Bohol

The whole island of Bohol and all the Cebu East missionaries were in attendance to hear an apostle of the Lord.  The chapel was filled w/ members of the hardest hit areas-Loon, Calape, Tubigon and Inabanga.  The rest of us sat outside in huge tents that covered the parking lot.  It poured before and during the meeting and even though we were under the tents we got pretty wet.  But the rain didn't dampen the excitement of having an apostle in our midst. Anyway, this is as close as I got to him on this day.  The day before there was a special meeting for all the missionaries from two missions-Cebu and Cebu East.  He shook every single missionaries hand including mine.

 Another tender mercy of the Lord...Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the 12 came to Bohol to give loving counsel and support.  He told us that the Lord is mindful of His people.  He had been given the assignment by the First Presidency in May to conduct a priesthood leadership training on Oct. 26, 2013 in Cebu.  That assignment was given him 5 months before the earthquake hit.  Coincidence?  I count it as another tender mercy.  The Lord knew what was about to occur so He sent one of His 12, through revelation to His prophet, to the people of Bohol.  Elder Andersen invoked a blessing that they would have a roof over their head, food on their table, and clothes on their backs and they would not be left alone.  Just want they needed to hear to give them hope to endure as they rebuild their homes and their lives.

One last tender mercy.  Super Typhoon Yolanda was heading straight for Bohol.  15,000 people were still living in tents.  She was reported to be one of the deadliest storms of the year. We prepared ourselves and our missionaries as best we could and then waited anxiously for our uninvited guest to arrive (think wicked witch crashing Sleeping Beauty's christening).  We followed her path through the internet and held our breath as the rain began and the winds picked up.  We waited, listening for the sound like a freight train bearing down on us, like we had heard when Iniki hit Kauai.  And then we saw that she had turned a little north and we were on edge of her massiveness.  We experienced a winter-like Kauai day with lots of rain and a few hard gusts of wind and that was it. Elijah had prayed for us over Facetime.  His simple prayer was, "Dear Heavenly Father please keep Mama and Papa safe and don't let them die from the storm."  From a child's mouth to God's ear.  

We are so grateful to have been spared.  We are heartbroken to hear what has happened in Leyte and Samar where she did land.  We wish with all our heart that they could have been spared also. But God's ways are higher than ours and though we do not understand all things we continue to trust in His wisdom and love for all of His children 

Elder Bednar said, "I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are available to all of us and that the Redeemer of Israel is eager to bestow such gifts upon us."  I also testify to the truthfulness of his words.  We love the Lord with all of our hearts.  We trust Him with all of our hearts. He is the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind, the only Way back to our eternal home.  May we all be anxiously engage in spreading this message is our prayer in His Holy Name, even Jesus the Christ, Amen.  Te atua pu.  Nahigugma mi inyoha, 

Elder and Sister Caycayon  

The Big and the Small of Things

We have found Bohol to be a land of  Littles and Bigs-

• Little scooters, trikes, trucks, and jeepneys playing chicken with huge interisland buses and garbage trucks

• The "world's smallest monkey" and the largest python in captivity (her name was Prony but she passed away...no worries because we found her replacement!)

                           

She eats one chicken a month. They just throw in a live one and then she does her thing. This "chicken" stayed faraway even though she was caged.  She is beautiful!

• Small sidewalk vendors selling everything you can think of and huge 3-story malls selling everything you can think of
• Little bamboo huts right next to huge gated mansions (they don't build here according to resale value)
• $23 american dollars equal to 1,000 pesos
• Grocery stores that sell little foods-little canned goods, little milk cartons, little onions, little tomatoes, little lemons, little romaine lettuce, little cabbage heads next to the large economy size packages of Costco.(No, there is no Costco here but there is a Costco like store in Cebu)
• Small two-lane roads bearing six-lane traffic    
• And we too are subject to the Littles and Bigs of this place. We feel like Gulliver-size missionaries next to Lilliputian size people.

M.J. Gementiza's baptism

But the real biggie was a 7.2 earthquake, equivalant to 32 Hiroshima bombs going off and the 600+ "little" aftershocks that continue until today. (The "little" after shocks still shake our two story concrete home)

We were blessed to have it still standing with a few cracks in the walls.

We needed to check on our missionaries on the south/southwest part of Bohol so we had to travel through central Bohol because one of the bridges had collapsed on the coast road. We left our home @8:30am and returned @8:30pm. After securing food, water, and money which took us about 2 hrs the most of the time was spent driving to and from the area. 

When we stopped to ask for directions an "angel" offered to be our guide. We followed him most of the way to our destination and then he told us to go to the right and he went to the left. That was in the morning.  In Bohol there is no dusk.  At 6:00pm the light is gone and it is night and we had no "angel" to show us the way. But we did have a map, a full moon and the Holy Spirit to guide us home. We followed the map but at certain junctions that we were unsure of, Elder Caycayon would stop the car, sit and stare at the surrounding area for awhile and then say, "this is the way".  We sang hymns and trusted that we were being led in the right direction and before we knew it we saw a sign that said "Balilihan".  We knew where we were and thanked Heavenly Father for watching over us.

All the missionaries in our district were safe and their homes were sound.  But the elders in the Calape District, in the town of  Loon, where the damage was extensive, lost everything.  Their house collapsed with everything in it but they got out in time. We went to Loon by boat to take food, water, clothes, and gasoline. 

It was a beautiful day, the sea was glassy and calm.  

Along the shore, the reefs had been lifted up and out of the water and had become part of the landscape.

We found the Loon chapel intact and members camped on the grounds still afraid to go home or unable to go home because their home was destroyed. The District President's balay (house) was destroyed yet his family could stand in front of that devastation and still smile. 

Our Saints in Bohol remind me of the pioneers that crossed the plains and lost so much.  Their faith in God is unshaken, they stand steadfast and immovable in the Gospel of Jesus Christ because they know who to put their trust in.

 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. 

 In all they ways acknowledge him and He shall direct thy paths." 

Proverbs 3:5

And so they do and they endure, and life goes on....

We are so grateful to be part of the "hastening", grateful to be able to serve, grateful to be here at this time, in this place.  One last thing that I'm grateful for.  A beautiful quilt that has decorated our bed and reminds me of home and has been a real "comforter" for me these last few days. Salamat kaayo, mahalo nui loa Sis. Ilene.

 Also salamat kaayo for all of the prayers in our behalf.  We know your prayers have protected us.  We love you all.  Remember...

Elder and Sister Caycayon