This week has been filled with a lot of travel. We have attended two Zone interviews and solved a few problems, but nothing to brag about. Yesterday we drove down to Gumaca and spent the night so we could meet a set of missionaries to travel up to Catanaun. There is a small branch of the Church there and we were asked to investigate the area to see if it would support a set of missionaries. I guess I will never get over the love/respect these people show us. It happens where ever we go. When we arrived at this small branch of the Church we were greeted warmly as usual, but this time the 2nd councilor in the Branch Pres. asked me to bless his new daughter - "Alisa Jensen Joyce Degal Sangmir" - she is 11 days old. I don't know why these people find so much to respect in us. It should be the other way around. Though we are not rich we have enough to live on where as they seldom do. We have a wonderful fully functional ward at home, and if one family is missing in these branches they suffer. We are seldom too hot or too cold in our meetings at home, and it is never cool enough in their buildings. Children often wear a small towel tucked behind their neck and down inside their shirt to absorb the perspiration it is so hot. I thought preparing just six trays for sacrament meeting meant we had a small ward. Today the missionaries we had with us blessed and passed the sacrament using just a single tray for the bread and another for the water. With all of this I have seldom felt the Spirit more in any meeting. There were 24 of us in attendance including the four of us (missionaries).

The first picture is of me holding Alisa. The second picture is of her parents holding her, and yes, that is the way they dress for Church. It is all they have.