Week 17

Hello Family and Friends!

Thank you all so much for all the emails. It is so nice to hear what is going on in the motherland. I really really do appreciate it so much!

This week has been on the tougher side of things. We are not sure if Dexter and Merlinda can get baptized anytime soon. It is way tough to explain in writing so bear with me. Merlinda has a former husband that she has not had the marriage annulled. (No such thing as divorce in the Philippines). So we filled out that cohabitation form for President Pagaduan and sent it back to him. The problem is that Dexter and Merlinda have only been together for one year. In order to prove that the relationship is permanent, the Area Presidency says they have to have been living together for at least 5 years. SO President basically said that we have four years to go. So heart breaking. SO we tried to look at things from the legal standpoint and get them civilly married. The annulment is the tricky part. The lawyer said it would cost 15000 Pesos and take over a year and it still probably wouldn't happen. (Philippines is SUPER catholic so divorce is just frowned upon). So that is just out of the question. We are working really hard to somehow prove to our leaders that 1) they are the BEST investigators and have kept every commitment we have extended 2) they really are prepared for the ordinance and 3) the relationship is permanent. SO I am requesting an interview from President anyway for them. Just so he can meet them in order to know how he can help them. And my big question is their temple marriage. If we wait four years anyway are they ever going to be able to get married in the temple. They have the commitment to prepare for their temple marriage but I am not sure how that works now. They aren't legally married. I can't imagine this is the first time this has happened so there must be a way to get them married in the temple. SO my logic tells me that we should baptize them now and prepare them for that temple marriage as soon as possible. Wouldn't that prove the permanency of this marriage? SO I'm really hoping something works out. 4 years is just too much of a gap for anything to happen and then they never get baptized. So keep praying for them. They are still doing SO well. We love them dearly. They know about the situation and have agreed to keep persevering even though it looks grim now. They come to church and have accepted to read the Book of Mormon all the way through. They have truly been blessed as well. Work opportunities have popped up alot for Dexter and he is very thankful for that. So this story is just getting more and more intricate, interesting, and challenging. More details to follow

Their nieces have also started the lessons. One is named Rosebell. She is 10 and a very sweet little girl. She got appendicitis this last week. So she went to the hospital in kallibo for surgery. We were in Kalibo the next day to talk to a lawyer for Dexter and Merlinda's annulment. So we just got bad news and then we went a Filipino hospital. Phew... I cried. It was hard to see. It made me so thankful for clean hospitals. She was in a recovery room and since they are very poor she stayed in the room that is free to recover in. The beds were old and rusty, with two to three people to a bed. It was very hot with so many people crowded in there. The parents basically have to take care of the child while she recovered. It was hard to see, that's all there really is to say.

I got pretty sick the next day. I think it was from the hospital. I got pink eye though (Thatcher and I were on the same page). I woke up Saturday with my eye swollen shut and gunk coming out of it. My eye is still kinda red. Apparently it is really popular here though. SO we couldn't proselyte that day. That is never fun.

I got the Christmas package! Thank you so much Mom! It is great and I'm very excited to listen to that CD. It was still sealed and everything was there (CD player and speakers as well). No worries! SO now I have my stocking... in January. Good times! This Christmas was different. My Christmas present (until now) has been a cup. I've never loved a single cup so much. Who cares if it is Hello Kitty, right? It is MY cup. I got it for Christmas from an investigator. I love that cup because it basically represents Christmas 2010. No worries. I will bring it home.

This week has been full of trials. I am ready, though, for this week to try my best to overcome and learn form them. I am excited to get things going and figure things out. Here are some more pictures (Krista- it would be great if you could send that cable. I have a cafe I can get SD card readers here in Kalibo but for future areas that would be great. SO no rush.)

1 This is Devine! She was heart broken when I couldn't play with her last time because I had pink eye. She lunged for me while her Dad was holding her. She is adorable.2 This is our haunted apartment. Im pretty sure I sent this last week but Krista made it sound like I didn't.3 Bamboo is EVERYWHERE here. And they get really big.4 Most bridges here are about like this. This is pretty nice. Usually it is a balance act to walk across streams and small rivers.5 Bananas. They are so delicious here. Small, but fantastically delicious.

So I am so proud of the Bulldogs pulling off the big win against Kentucky (basketball). I'm liking this season and I'm missing my $2 student tickets right about now. Oh well. Dad's commentary will just have to do. haha!

Tagalog is going along really well. No big complaints and I can understand Aklanon. For the most part, anyway. I love the language. It is constantly tough but very interesting. I have been observing how versatile this one word is in Visaya (I think that is the root language, Im not sure though). It is "bilog." I've asked so many people but none of them can give me a good answer to what is means. They use it all the time though. The best definition I can come up with is anything that is round. I first heard it playing basketball. You say "Isa pang bilog!" if you want "One more shot" So I thought it was just a basketball shot. No no no. I went to church and I hear it about 20 more times. So obviously it doesn't mean a basketball shot. But if someone has alot of fruit they will so that they have so many "bilogs" And then just this morning someone payed for their fare to go to Kalibo and referred to himself as a Bilog. So the word is really versatile and as farm as I can tell it can refer to anything that is remotely round. Sorry if that was confusing... I just thought it was interesting.

Thank you all again for the support! I love you all and pray daily for you all.

Devyn- Sorry the Post is taking forever to get to you! I really hope it arrives soon!

Love you all!

Elder Lowry