Rain and shine and weaving

Banana Leaves Make Amazing Umberellas

 Just when we thought it was safe to go outdoors—as in we haven’t had a natural disaster in, what? weeks?—we had two days back to back of being out for way too long in way too severe of weather.  One day it was rain and mud, the next brutal sunshine and humidity.

Yet, as always, we got to know why.

Remember we told you of a man who found a tattered Book of Mormon on a river bank, read it, prayed about it, had revelatory dreams regarding it (ya, sounds like a church video, I know) and finally sleuthed out what church it belonged to and asked if he could join?  Well, if you remember in that story, when we met him to invite him to speak in district conference, we started talking to him outside on a bench, then moved, due to rain, onto his front porch, then had to move, due to leaks, to his inside sala (front room, but picture no furniture, just a bamboo floor), then had to move again, due to torrential leaks, to his bedroom (picture no furniture, but a hook with clothes and a rolled up mat). Here we stayed and recorded his story.  The ubiquitous leaks continued to try us, but they were fewer. The sound was deafening, but we huddled down and listened to his story.

126 stairs then 1,463 steps up into the wilderness--we counted

Well, his wife was about to be baptized this week, and on Friday the missionaries in his congregation organized a service project to help repair his roof.  So, the zone missionaries, 12 of us, drove in our truck (6 in the cab and 6 in the truck bed with canopy) to their town, up a mountain, then we got out and climbed up a mountainous staircase, then hiked higher into the mountain to where we gathered coconut fronds, cut them down the spines and wove them into a thatch.  It is not as solid as nipa leaves and the weave they do with the nipa, but apparently it will suffice.

Roof Weaving 101

You don't learn this in school

It was actually great fun learning to weave the fronds.  The trouble was the rain.  It was raining when we gathered at the church.  It was raining harder while we drove up the mountain.  It was pouring (now really think of that word—imagine a pitcher, pouring water out) by the time we got to the shelter in which we would weave the fronds, we were soaked to our skin.  But, dauntless we acquired the new skill we’d come to learn, and got even more muddy than when we arrived.  I must say, the sister who taught the technique magically produced a product that was certainly more water resistant than some of our attempts, but even ours would be a blessing to our Filipino version of Lorenzo Vincente.

A spoon made out of Coconut husk for eating the meat.

Climbing the tree for fresh coconuts. 

We cracked open a few young coconuts that a guy threw down to us from about 80 feet up.  Elder Cropper was especially glad he had carried his bolo knife all the way, ‘cause now he had a use for it. You can make a little spoon by shaping a piece of the husk. We drank coconut water, scooped out the soft flesh, loaded up our woven roofing and headed back down the mountain.  Can you picture 12 muddy, soaked, sweaty missionaries in a truck? With thatched fronds on the roof?  See below.

many hands make light work

It was now too dark and too late to deliver the goods up to Bro. O’s house (another climbing feat), but we were happy to know they would get delivered by members, and soon brother O and his family would have more than just a corner of their house dry in the coming wet months. Brother O baptized his wife on Saturday.  On Sunday, he used his Melchizedek to confer upon her the gift of the Holy Ghost.  They had a much drier house to go home to after.

It works just like a shingle

Kanding (goat) one day old

We are so happy to have a truck!

 Next day, Saturday,  sun.  The R.S. Pres in our branch organized a 1-day-mission where all the sisters met at the church, divided up the people who needed visits and off we went to find folks.  Elder Cropper and the zone leaders did the same, but in the air conditioned truck.  I went with a young sister in the morning, we all met for lunch, then I went with 3 other sisters in the afternoon.  Let me tell you about hot.  The clouds were gone.  The sun was merciless.  We walked for big chunks of the day, and when we were not walking, we were confined in tight spaces with precious little air flow, or were riding in pedi-cabs designed for Filipinos—ya, even tighter spaces.  Elder Cropper had driven off with my umbrella, so I got my first really bad sunburn of my mission.  Plus, after the rains of the day before, the ground was literally steaming for much of the day—the humidity was droopifying.  It just soaks the energy out of you along with the sweat.  I am not usually as affected by the heat as my companion, but this day was way beyond uncomfortable. I was begging for mercy—knowing we still had 3 serious appointments that evening.

We all met back at the church, and reported on our visits.  Everyone was positive about the people they had found and the invitations they had extended, but you know how that goes . . . People mean well.

Then came the miracles.  Again.  The people really did come.  The sister who always has a million excuses—and very real they are— could not any longer use them, after hearing testimony from her R.S.  Pres. of her own trials in bringing her family of 6 to church by herself, while her husband drank himself into a stupor and now she has 4 returned missionary sons and her husband in the branch presidency. And the sister who left the church in her 20’s after getting pregnant, then married, then separated, and now living with another man, was given a blessing in the afternoon after sisters found her ill in the morning, and she showed up at church today with her live-in boyfriend and the son he is helping her raise.  She had been ashamed to come before, because of her circumstances, but she was loved, then healed, and now she remembers what it feels like to belong to the flock.

Elder Cropper was in the comfort of the truck, but he did have rough roads to drive and long distances at that, and he and the missionaries also had their miracles—a baptism set, a blessing for the sick sister, a lesson taught to a new mother.

Happily engaged in the Lord's Work!

So, rain and sun aside, the miracles continue. By Sunday night it was pouring rain hard again.  We happily pictured the O family under their new thatch.