Maayong Pasko

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MAAYONG PASKO

We toured around capturing some of the places we frequent in order to give our children, grandchildren and loved ones a little Christmas tour of our environs.

Our Christmas Present to you all.

We took most of the pictures pre-flood, but the last few are from after. Life goes on, people recover, and they even remember to take time to celebrate. May you each remember to celebrate, and more important, may you remember what it is we celebrate—the birth of the Prince of Peace, the bringer of Life and Light. We have seen so much evidence of his Love and influence. May you feel it too.

Merry Christmas from the market in Tanjay just north of Amlan 15 minutes, one of the many we shop at.

A few tuna for sale

A day in the market just before the tyhoon.

The market is full of all sorts of little friends, Can you see the one hiding on the turnips?

Chop suey and tomatos, which are never red here.

Elder and Sister Cropper without their name tags

Tanjay market décor

A girl playing near a tied up rooster in a restaurant at the market

Restaurant we often take the missionaries to in Tanjay after transfers, or District meeting. Notice the man playing the bottle instrument, and another on guitar.

In front of the Tanjay District building

Decorations at the entry to Tanjay

Tanjay wishes you a Merry Pasko

So does the mayor

A rice paddie between Tanjay and Amlan

The crab field before the flood

Ya, I love those crab homes. And these are small ones. Since the flood there are lots more of them

Sister Ybanez in her back yard

And with her dog, Cookie

And her pig, wishing you Merry Christmas (or trying to eat our sign)

A banana tree decoration on a house in the neighborhood

A Nipa plantation. Most of the houses make this into their roofing material

The Amlan river before it turned into a monster of destruction

The cemetery in the hill above the town

Elder Cropper, the matador. This is as close as he would get, scardey cat

In front of the Amlan chapel

Carrying Mangos to market

Carrying Jack fruit to market.Carrying everyone, anywhere.

After a day of Flood relief. The lights at Tanjay city Hall , when much of Amlan still had no electricity.

Erika playing it cool in her mom;s glasses.

The Relief Society dance performance in the church parking lot. Ya, I’m the huge one in the middle.

Sparky is alive and well in Amlan, Negros Oriental, Philippines. These are our two banana Christmas trees, as per the Christmas custom here—one on each side of your doorway. We also have 3 reindeer made of vines.

That's it for our Christmas tour. It takes hours to reduce, load and place pictures, and we have yet to be successful at sharing video with you, but we hope you can feel our love and best wishes at Christmas through this little project.

It is Christmas Eve here. we are having Elders over for breakfast and planning, then a baptism interview, then we will take the zone out for dinner. Christmas day itself will be early rising for Elder Cropper who has to go help the man he bought the pig from for the Paradise Christmas party. They will transport it here for the cooking. Then church in Amlan. It is supposed to be the Primary Children's program, but many are sick, including the Primary Pres, and she has only 1 other person in the primary. Hmmmm. Then in the afternoon we will go to the Paradise Christmas party where we know almost no one. It will be a very strange Christmas. But all our caroling is done, our gifts have been delivered, relief has been delivered, maybe our gifts were washed away, we do have lights on our banana trees; we have each other; we have the birth of a majestic baby to celebrate. Who needs anything more than that.

May you all have love and peace on Christmas day, and may you find both in abundance in the New Year. Love always,

Elder and Sister Cropper