November 2015

We are coming off of a busy month with all but two of our 2015 Stake Specialists, Facilitator and Bishop Conventions completed. This Saturday the 7th and next Saturday the 14 will conclude the conventions.  All of the conventions so far have had a tremendous effect with all the leaders as indicated by their increased Self-Reliance activity.  I think the biggest plus is coming from the Bishops who I think for the first time really comprehend their roles and responsibilities in Self-Reliance.

Nov 14th our concluding Bishops Convention was held in Bogo.  We all traveled to Bogo on Friday afternoon stopping at our favorite restaurant Borussia for a fabulous German dinner.  Going or coming from Bogo we always stop here because the food is so good and the owners are some of the most cordial people we will ever meet.

After dinner we all checked into Queens Island Resort our favorite place to stay when in Bogo.This was Sister Balen and Sister Darby's first time here and they enjoyed it very much.  Mary Ann had her family with her and it was fun to see them having some fun time together.

Saturday morning we arrived at the District chapel to set up for the convention.  We had a good attendance with about 23 there and was able to spend some quality time discussing all the aspects of Self-Reliance. We set down the gauntlet that each Branch was to have a Ward Specialists and 1 Facilitator called by January 1, 2016.  The District was to have 2 CSM couples called by the same time.  The District President and each Branch President committed to that goal.

The highlight of the meeting was our announcement that the Pagtambayayong hog farming project which we have been working on for months has finally jelled, that all legal agreements have been signed and now we need to find 20 people who could qualify for this very special self-reliance program.  This will be come a life changing business for the participants so we are making sure that the first batch is the right batch so that SUCCESS comes to everybody.

The District President and Branch Presidents were elated about the announcement as it has been long coming.  We gave them four to six weeks to identify the first group of participants before we would return to lay out the entire program to them and help them get involved and signed up with the Partambayayong Foundation.  We are fortunate to have Elder Bock a MSL Missionary from Australia who is so gung-ho about this project.  He will certainly play a big role in assisting all the participants in the start up and to insure that each participant follows the plan as outlined so that success the program will only become success going forward. 

Elder Bock informed me that he was speaking with the foundation this week and they  indicated that they needed another 5 man crew to build pig pens.  He got a initial consent to have LDS members fill that need so he has 10 days to find the members with construction experience to get to the foundation to be interviewed.  Another hidden blessing coming from this project.

Everything that happens in Bogo with the hog farming project will determine the depth and length to which the church and the foundation will go to expand and duplicate this operation to other islands. Hopefully we are at a beginning of something that will benefit the Filipino people for a long time.  If this comes off as planned and continues forward I can go home feeling that in a small way my efforts towards this dream were fulfilled and I have contributed something to the people here in Cebu.

November is about over.  We spent last weekend in Tagbilaran attending Stake Conference and training their new Stake Self-Reliance Assistant Specialist and facilitators.  We stayed at a new resort the Bohol Tropics which was gracious and beautiful.

Wednesday we are returning to the island of Legapzi to train the new Self-Reliance Couple who just arrived.  We will also conduct a Bishops Convention for that Mission which will conclude that training program for this year. 

Our trip to Legapzi was very rewarding. We held the first Bishops Convention on the Island and had 30 in attendance all from one stake.  Prior to the gatheringg we meet up with Mary Ann and the new Self-Reliance Couple from England who just arrived a few days earlier.

Brother and Sister Mulligan are a blessing and a delight.  They are both converts to the church.  Sister Mulligan is a Filipino and he is English; they met many years ago.  He worked for the British Government for 20 years and after some unfortunate irregular political games being played by his superiors he left that employment and went to work for the church.  For his remaining 20 years he served as the Area Self-Reliance Manager for all the European countries.  He is absolutely a delight to speak with and has a tremendous amount of  knowledge as well as experience in the Self-Reliance Initiative. He has worked with the brethren in Salt Lake so he knows the goings on within SR. 

He is going to be a great asset to Mary Ann on the island of Legapzi.  It is unfortunate that he did not arrive much earlier so we could have worked closer with each other, it would have been a blessing to have been able to rub shoulders with him and have the close association with another male.

Christmas is in the air with all the decorations in the malls and on the streets in place. Like South Africa it is hard to really envision Christmas without the winter and especially to see the Filipino people put up Snow Men as decorations when SNOW is nothing they experience.   They actually start celebrating Christmas in September over here but we are holding off until December before putting up our little Christmas tree.

Well "HAPPY THANKSGIVING", joining with the temple missionaries, the Temple Presidency and Recorders. We held a real traditional American Thanksgiving with turkey and all the trimmings. The meal was so wonderful and everybody got enough to satisfy their bellies.  Jenee and I made a lemon meringue pie and a banana cream pie as our contribution.  We also took our one and only can or cranberry sauce that we found a couple of months back.

After eating we sang songs accompanied by Elder Schofield and were then  treated by the Temple Presidency dancing to Achey, Breaky, Heart - what a cut up they were..  We started at 3:00 pm and concluded at 5:30 pm with everybody departing completely satisfied.

It has been a real-life saver having the opportunity to serve and mingle with the temple missionaries.  It has made such a difference in our mission being with them now and then.  Almost every Thursday after we complete our temple shift the group of 6-8 of us goes out for dinner.  A new place every time which make it exciting.  We have met some wonderful new friends and for us, this association has filled a void we missed during the first six months of our mission.  As much as we enjoy Self-Reliance we were just one couple all by ourselves with no real fellowship with others so in August when we were approved to serve in the Temple, we were excited to say the least, based on our South African Temple mission experiences.

The Self-Reliance work has slowed down somewhat this month due to circumstances beyond our control. The Tagbilaran District was made into a Stake, which involved a lot of ward and branch changes. Calape District just called a new District President so a lot of changes have been taking place here.  The past district president was called as the Stake Self-Reliance Specialists and he is working hard to get all the branches to call SR specialists so we hope to return some time this month when he has everything in place.  Bogo has done some realignment and we called a District SR Assistant and requested that each branch have a specialist called by January 1, 2016 with the District calling two CSMS.  So far things are improving along well in Bogo. Liloan Stake is still defiant and will not participate in Self-Reliance so we do nothing there.

With the holidays upon us we are not counting on much to happen so we are now making plans with all our Stakes/District & Ward/Branches to schedule meetings and devotionals beginning January.

Jenee and I have been asked to help out with the "Forgotten Carols" production that the Cebu tri-stake is putting on this coming December.  I have been asked to function as the budget manager seeing that all the funds are properly spent and accounted for. 
Jenee is going to direct the choir and has been asked to play the part of Sarah, but she is not sure that is what she really wants to do, the Sarah part that is.  She will work on getting a local sister to play that part so she can concentrate on the choir and music.  This production will be put on  2 nights-Dec. 19 & 26th.  We will be inviting local governmental dignitaries to attend as well as non members to join with members.  Three stakes will attend on the 19th and the other three on the 26th.

This is quite an undertaking with such short time so hopefully everything will comf off without a hitch.
This project has really had its ups and downs because they decided to do this production in October without any funding, no script, no location secured and it goes on and on.  The Sister producing the production wanted it to be done out on the temple complex grounds but a big NO-NO was put forth by the temple department which meant it had to be done in the Stake cultural Hall.  That did not set will with the producer and feelings were hurt to say the least so last Sunday she announced that she was walking away from the production, leaving everybody in shock.

It is a sad scenario truly, but with the improper pre-planning, inaccurate budget figures submitted, and very, VERY HIGH expectations on the part of the producer this production was in many ways set to fail from the very beginning but nobody wanted to hear that.  Even with adjustment it is still yet to be seen how this will come off.  After some reviewing of the figures I made recommendations as the Budget Manager to cut some of the production cost to bring the production within the allowed budget of Pph 120,000 that was finally allotted by the Area PA Department.

If everybody left does their part in a timely manner this will be a good production for the members and non-members even after all the set backs that have occurred.  Watch for details next month!