Tanner, Ninjas, Identity

Dear Tanner Happy birthday son!!

Do you remember the days when Ninjas were all the rage? Remember when you and your friends would all dress up in black, like ninjas, and go have ninja wars? Yes, you were very goofy, and yes, it was dangerous with your sling shots and your acorns, but you looked really cool and you probably felt pretty cool. Well, your birthday blog is in celebration of your ninja days. No one should get so old that he forgets that, “I was once a ninja warrior.”

Dad and I have, since we first got here, been amazed at all the ninja headgear worn here. We wish we had collected more pictures of it, but we can’t always capture them as they fly by on their tiny motorcycles or as we fly by them in our truck. We have, recently, made more of an effort to do the photo journalism involved to capture photos for your birthday blog. And this is what we came up with--see below.

We have asked the question, "why are they dressed like that?" but we have not received a definitive answer. Some say to keep clean from dust and pollution. Others say it is to keep from getting darker skin. Others say it is to keep cool.

There is evidence that it might be a combo of all three. First reason: yes, it is VERY dusty and polluted here, especially if you are traveling by motorcycle or even any un-air-conditioned vehicle, OR if you are working on the road and have vehicles drive by you all day on the dusty roads. Second reason: people here go to great lengths to avoid getting dark, so why not this method of dark avoidance? Most skin care and hygiene products here include bleaching agents—your soap, your deodorant, your face cream, all claim to whiten in addition to their primary function. Some people won’t swim or exercise outdoors because they will get darker. If they don’t wear full on ninja garb, they will often walk with a little kerchief draped over their head for shade, and almost all women carry umbrellas to keep out of the sun. But, the observations which I attribute to darkness avoidance, could also be part of . . . Third reason, to keep cool: it is blessed hot here, and even if you have darker skin, if you are out in the sun, you can burn and over heat, so maybe ninja garb is partly just to keep cool. So those are very valid reasons to cover up, place a kerchief square on your head or carry an umbrella.

But back to ninjas. Keeping cool aside, there is the BEING cool factor at work here, and ya gotta know you just plain look cool when you have long armed gloves on and are sporting very groovy head attire. No one can tell who you are unless they recognize your ride, or know where you work, so that’s a plus too. Tan, when you are here, maybe we can rent you a motorcycle, and you can dress up like a ninja and borrow a sling shot. There are no acorns, but at your age, maybe coconuts are in order—you have earned the bigger fire power.

We love you so much, love thinking of you, love remembering the escapades of your boisterous youth (“doctor I think my son is hyperactive. No Mrs. Cropper he is just energetic.”) and enthusiastic adulthood.

Unlike so many people who want to be something they are not--lighter skinned, darker-skinned, younger, more beautiful--you have always been sure of your identity and willing to alter it for the better under direction from the Holy Ghost, not based on some wordly-imposed expectation. We have admired you for that. We see in this culture a tendency by the people to under value themselves. It is sad to hear a mother wish her newborn had a narrower nose or whiter skin. We commend you, Tanner, for knowing who you are and for evolving within the knowledge that you are of a son of God.

We are grateful and humbled by the miracle of being here, and acknowledge that without you, it would not be possible, at least not now. Thank you son, you have exceeded our dreams for you, and you have only just begun!

True ninjas can text and ride their motorbike!


























































































































You might recognize the last two ninjas posing with two of our mighty missionaries. They too know about identity. They spend all their days teaching and exemplifying through their missionary and community service that we are all children of our Heavenly Father. Here we are helping paint yet another school.









And of course, THE QUEEN NINJA!
WE LOVE YOU

Jack's birthday, baptism, and Filipino Legos

Dear Jack, Happy Birthday Grandson!!

We miss you and think about you often while we are here serving our mission. I am so glad we get to see you on Skype sometimes and to hear how well you are doing. We are sad to be missing your baptism, but we can hopefully talk to you and hear about it. We are so proud of you for making the decision to be baptized, for preparing by learning about the gospel in your family and at Primary, and especially proud of you for interviewing with the Bishop so that you could say to the Lord’s servant that you are ready to make the promises of baptism. In the mission we remember what those promises are by using the word T-A-K-E. We promise to:

Take his name upon us, to

Always remember him, to

Keep his commandments, and to

Endure to the end

We are grateful that, though you are young, you are ready to make covenants with Heavenly Father. Good job Jack.

There is one thing we thought of here in the Philippines that reminds us especially of you and that we think you would like to learn about and maybe other folks would think it is interesting too.

We know you like Legos. You have built so many things with Legos and you see how they should go together like you should be a Lego engineer or something!! Well in the Philippines we have seen no Legos in anybody’s house so far, although I’m sure some kids have them ‘cause we saw them in a store here. But what we do see everywhere is the building blocks of the Philippines. I guess you’d say they are more like Linkin Logs than Legos, but for sure the people here make everything imaginable from them--and that is Bamboo plants.

Bamboo grows so fast, it can grow 39 inches in 1 day!! But it normally grows about 1-4 inches in a day, which is still really fast. There are lots of kinds, from not too big to giant, It is very strong, even the not so big variety, and very versatile. Here we see it growing all over the place, and we see things made from it in almost every home and building. Many of the homes and buildings themselves are made from bamboo as the main structure. We thought you would like to see some of the things that can be made from bamboo. Look for the example in the pictures below.

One cool thing about bamboo is the sound it makes. We can’t show you but I’ll try to describe it. Because the bamboo is hollow, when the wind blows, and the stalks knock against each other, it sounds sort of like those wind chimes made from bamboo that you see hanging on a porch sometimes. Only in a bamboo grove the sound is louder and deeper and many, many more knockings. It can get very loud and even a little scary until you picture that it is just the bamboo stalks greeting each other when the wind allows them to lean over and say hi to a neighbor. Then it becomes a friendly sound, like, “knock, knock, who’s there?”

We know that if you lived here, your tree house would be made of bamboo, and that you would think of all sorts of other cool things to make from bamboo. Who needs Lego if you have bamboo? And, if you have Legos in a house with a bamboo floor, the tiny Legos would fall through the floor. Maybe that’s why most kids here don’t have them. We made 2 birthday signs from Bamboo. It wasn’t easy finding pieces we could use. It is everywhere, but it isn’t ours to use, so we had to find some that no one was using, Some was behind a school we were helping to paint. Of course the first one is easy, but see if you can see your name in another picture too.

For a family activity, for Family Home Evening, maybe each family who reads this could count all the things we have shown in the blog that you can make from bamboo. See how many you can count.

Love you Jack. Happy birthday!!

These are the bamboo trees that talk to each other.






































This is a family where we had a family home evening. We built a temple in their yard out of bamboo so they could imagine going to the temple together. Can you see the spire behind them at the top?









This caribau is a bamboo delivery service. He was hauling long, long bamboo on the highway--just draggin them along. The man is un-doing them from the harness.






















































Can you see what these two bamboo poles are doing?



































This family painted the bamboo poles on their house pink and white stripes. Yes, I'm holding a new born baby.

Easter in the P.I. and forgiveness all over

Dear loved ones,

We are sorry there are no pictures; you just have to use your imagination.

We are just coming to the close of Easter Sunday, which you have yet to enjoy. As we read of the family fast Sunday dinner plans for the Oregonians, we were reminded that it’s Easter, but here in the Philippines the Easter traditions are very different. As far as our observations allow, the tradition is to struggle through Lent (not easy to give up meat, when pork is the number one source of protein), then celebrate different parts of certain days of Holy Week, starting last Sunday which was Palm Sunday, when everyone attended church carrying different formations of woven coconut palm fronds. Some were rolled back onto the stem in fanciful and lovely ways, some were cut short and formed into crosses. Every pedestrian and every passenger in every conveyance had one, waving on motorcycles or out of bus windows. Some had dozens stacked together for sale to those who had none. They take these palms and the priest blesses them with holy water and then they can take them home to bless the sick and such. On Good Friday there are small booths set up along neighborhood roads and national highways that represent different Stations of the Cross. The booths are decorated with statues and candles and flowers and such on a small altar-like table, with a colorful fabric backdrop draped on a makeshift bamboo structure. People walk these routes during the day, stopping to worship at each, then they attend mass or church. When Easter Sunday finally arrives, it is a day for family celebration. Church is not even part of the mix--all the religious stuff is behind them. EVERYONE goes to the beach!! Or they go to a pool/resort for the day for P100 per person ($2.40, or most of one day’s wage for a laborer). Today as we drove home from the District center where we watched conference, it seemed every person was out and about, and the parking areas for any place even close to the ocean or to a pool were packed. Instead of palm fronds and Sunday dress like last Sunday, they had towels and wore swim suit coverups

If we were a really good missionary couple we would have figured out some way to celebrate Easter with the missionaries in the zone, especially since, for the first time, we have more than 1 American missionary, so they might have really appreciated the effort. We have 3!!! But, we did not pull it off. Didn’t really think about it. Holidays here are sort of surreal. Like what is Easter again? The resurrection aspect of it we have been teaching all week to anyone who would listen, but the celebration part we got a little blurry on. Today, when we greeted the missionaries at conference, we said Happy Easter to the Americans and then we all laughed at how none of us had really thought about it—at least not about the Easter bunny part or the lamb roast or asparagus part. It will be hard to get back into those things, I think.

Conference was so great, and because ours was broadcast a week late, and so fell on Easter, we felt we were doubly blessed. What a perfect way to spend Easter Sunday other than with you.

There were many talks, and, interestingly enough, a couple of songs that I felt were aimed just at me—as we all often experience. What a miracle that is in itself. My plan is to spend time tonight compiling a plan of action to resolve some of the concerns I’ve had and the areas that need strengthening. We both feel very richly blessed, strengthened, chastened, admonished and commended through listening to conference.

I have had one personal concern that I have been praying about for years. I think today, I got a glimpse into the resolution of that concern. I can’t wait to go back over the talks and see if I can put Elder Scott’s process into effect to receive the fleshing out details of what I heard from parts of several talks, and, like I said, songs. Don’t you hate when speakers refer to some great trial they faced, but then we don’t get to hear any details—like Elder Eyring? I feel like saying, “come on, tell me the details and I’ll be the one to determine if it was really all that bad or not.” Well, I won’t tell you details of my epiphany either—at least not yet—and, no, I’m not comparing myself to a conference speaker, but the idea is the same. Suffice it to say it has to do with receiving guidance/comfort/revelation/direction from the Holy Ghost.

The one talk I had no trouble understanding, was the one on family contention. Pres. Uchtdorf. said, “Stop it.”

And so I feel compelled to offer a blanket apology. Now, blanket apologies may seem too vague to be valid. They may seem in the same category as another blanket statement we were warned of, namely, “let me know if I can help.” But I can think of one blanket apology (and I’m sure there are others) that was very effective. Pres. Woodley, as his first act as Stake President over a decade ago, stood in Stake Conference and asked forgiveness of anyone he’d ever offended. Then he asked fervently for our prayers to help him make his weaknesses into strengths. We did pray for him. And he became a most beloved Stake President, at least in part because he asked for our prayers and forgiveness, and we were willing to comply with his request

With all that said, please, if there are any of you who bristle about something I’ve said or done; If there are things we’ve talked about that you felt I didn’t take seriously enough; if you think I behaved unfairly between you and another family member; if I failed to follow through on something I said I’d do or even just a precedent I set that I didn’t follow through with; if you think I crossed the line of propriety when I counseled with you; or if I failed to be there when you needed me, please forgive me. Please exercise the process spoken of in conference, and find it in your heart to know that I am a loving, caring sometimes even inspired person, and I am also a self-centered bungler. Please love both parts of me. I am NOT, NOT asking for validation, as in, “oh no, don’t worry, you could never have hurt my feelings.” Nor am I asking for a litany of my evils (unless you feel you need to voice them, so I can desist, in which case fire away). I am just asking for what Pres. Uchtdorf suggested—that you find it in your heart to think lovingly of me and forgive me as needed.

I am doing the same for all of you and your many infractions :) Through the grace of God, and the nudge of Pres. U. may we each and every one find love and forgiveness for every other one of us on this Easter Sunday, and leave no more contention within our midst. Can We?

God bless us all on this day we celebrate the seminal act of divinity and humanity, the Resurrection of Ginoo, ug Manluluwas—Lord and Savior—Jesus Christ.

Love always,

Elder and Sister Cropper, forever altered but still not there

We celebrate Dan's birthday at Silab Falls

Happy Birthday Son!! Twenty-Two !!!

As we thought about your birthday blog, we decided what better way to wish you Happy Birthday than by using the resources at hand—men and women of your own age who we rub shoulders with every day, and the great outdoors!!. So we asked our zone of missionaries to help us wish you happy birthday. Last week we had a missionary zone activity. About once every transfer we have a group activity with the missionaries from this zone (which corresponds to a member District, which is like a Stake). Anyway, there are 10 of us in the zone, and the young missionaries like to be super active on their p-days and especially on the week they get a zone activity.

So, there is a member in our branch who has a coconut and banana farm way up a mountain near us. And on this farm he had a waterfall, EIEIO, which he offered to guide us to.

They met at our house and we fed them breakfast— pineapple juice,pancakes and scrambled eggs with bacon in the eggs, and mango and banana with yogurt. They were very happy. Then they aided us in making your birthday sign, see above. That is what we came up with. Is it apparent what we are spelling? So, that’s our Happy Birthday from the Tanjay Zone.

After the photos, we headed out. One of the Elders had collected funds from the others, bought ingredients, and had cooked our lunch—rice and a yummy stew (called adobo), which we took along. We loaded everyone into the truck and drove up to a place called Silab, up a teeth-rattling road (with several Elders crammed into the covered truck bed —yikes) up about 6 or 7 miles. Then we got out and the fun began. Our guide, the branch mission leader whose property we were on ran up a hill and returned with a guy carrying several bamboo poles. He lashed them together and one had a hook shaped knife on the end. He raised the contraption up into a coconut tree, hooked a clump of coconuts up 30-40 feet high and they would crash down and roll like bowling balls down the hill to where the Elders and Sisters would chase them down. In the one picture that just looks like jungle, look for people doing just that. When enough were collected, Brother A. hacked off the top of each with a bolo knife and we collected the coveted coconut water. We filled several soda bottles full to take home—Dad’s new pick me up drink. It’s full of electrolytes and such. We then scraped out the fleshy parts into a pitcher, added sweetened condensed milk, and that was the other part of our lunch later. They call it Boco salad.

While all this was going on we had a short cloud burst, so we took cover under some banana leaves.

The hike into the falls was short but pretty steep. Steps had been cut into the soil and rock in preparation for the province to develop the path, the falls and pools into a nature destination.

We got down there and as you can see it was pretty fabulous. The pictures tell the story. We ate our lunch down by the water. Filipinos are pretty serious about their food on any activity. You’d think each person could just carry a sandwich and some water, but no, we (actually they) hauled a cooler full of soda, the pot of stew, the pot of rice, the big container of boco salad, cups, plates, utensils. It was pretty awesome.

We hiked around a bit and were going to do some rappeling down the walls of the canyon into the lower cavern, but another cloudburst arrived and this time it didn’t let up. Since brother A.’s father-in-law died in a flash flood a few years back on this very river, he did not mess around when the rain started getting heavy. We climbed out of the canyon and headed home.

We had a great day playing with these marvelous men and women, all of whom are Filipino, all of whom are about your age, none of whom look anything like you, but who all know how to have fun in nature and boulder about on rocky ledges. Some things translate into any culture.

We love you Dan, and loved thinking about and planning and implementing your blog post. We are so proud of you--the fine man you have become. Congratultaions on all you've accomplished this year--you have really made it count. The missionaries all join us in wishing you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!