Birthday wishes granted

Ever since we arrived in the Philippines, Elder Koontz has wanted to go to the ocean.

Our mission borders the Pacific Ocean on the eastern side, but there are no roads that go over the mountains to get to the ocean. Yet, one could drive out of mission boundaries to the north (5hrs), or to the south (3hrs) to walk on the beautiful beaches where ocean waves lap.

Saturday, August 31, 2019, we left Cauayan at 5:30am heading south through the town of Maddela (which is in our mission) and over the Sierra Madre Mountains (which is not). The skies were overcast that day, temperatures in the high 80's.

These kids were playing in the water. One young boy was fishing, using line wrapped around a plastic pop bottle. Others were swimming. I enjoyed watching a two-year-old as he giggled each time he came up from the water and wiped his eyes.

We decided to join them... kind of. The water was nice and warm.

This blue sea snake washed up on shore. It was dead.

 Fun, relaxing day. Happy birthday, Elder Koontz!

Shiny and beautiful

Many of you know I am not an animal lover. And I especially don’t like bugs. My kids missed out on a ‘normal’ childhood because I would not permit pets in the house that could: 1) get out of their cages, 2) slither or crawl, and 3) had fur that I was ‘allergic’ to (in other words, everything else 😅).

We did have a ten-gallon fish tank until someone played with the tank. We came home after church to find the hose hanging out the tank, siphoning water onto the carpet, leaving only two inches of water in the tank. We kept the tank until all the fish died. (Oh, and after I had the dream of the plecostomus [suckermouth catfish] chasing me!)

Well, today I took a few pictures during sacrament meeting. I know I shouldn’t be taking pictures in the chapel, but, I had to show proof that “It’s more fun in the Philippines”!

We’ve become friends with some of the young children. I bring coloring pages and crayons for them to color; otherwise, some of them like to run around the pews, and sometimes up behind the pulpit.

This little three-year-old crawled under the bench from two rows back to show me what he had in his handkerchief.  It was a beautiful iridescent green and blue BEETLE!

Then, his older brother threw HIS beetle over (from two rows back) so there were TWO!

He would lay his handkerchief flat on the bench, place the beetles on the hanky, neatly fold the hanky, then PUSH and SMOOSH it into his pocket! Then he would unwrap it and set the beetles on the bench, sometimes headed in my direction. I did okay. I MAY have scooted closer to Jan... really close.