Catch up . . .

Remember the old cliche "Time flies when you are having fun" . . . . well, we have been having fun and keeping busy. We are in the midst of preparing for a batch of 13 missionaries to depart the mission and 12 new missionaries to arrive next week! This is always an exciting time . . . sad to see some leave and exciting to meet new ones. And we took a little time for us on Saturday . . .

On Saturday, June 4th, we attended a baptism in LaPaz about 1 1/2 hours away. Since it is close to Tarlac, we met up with our friends and fellow senior couple, the Bowcutts, for lunch. We met at the mall and went to KFC.

Here is Elder & Sister Bowcutt

Lunch tasted really good and very American even though they serve rice with the chicken. We requested no rice but potatoes and gravy instead and coleslaw. Yum!!

After lunch we headed to LaPaz for the baptism. Here is a picture of the church and another looking from the front door towards the street. The sun was bright so you can't see th roof too well.

The baptism was scheduled for 3pm. We arrived a few minutes before, but the man had not arrived. The missionaries told us that he lived quite a ways away from the church and had to come by tricycle (a motorcycle with a side car). We visited with the missionaries and some of the ward members while we waited almost an hour for him to get there. But it was worth it! Brother Gagar is a very humble 58 year old man. His wife is a member of 5 years and he presently has a son serving in the Davao Mission. Saturday he took those steps into the water to be baptized into the church and start his eternal progression back to our Father in Heaven. In a small way, he brought back memories of my dad who was not active while I was growing up. But thanks to a wonderful Bishop, who called him to be a ward clerk, dad’s activity changed and he returned to the Temple when my sister went on her mission some 30 years ago. He worked in the Baptistery in the Jordan River Temple at the time of his death 6½ years ago. I treasure those memories and now Brother Gagar’s family can have similar memories as their husband and father joins the church and becomes active. He seems to have a good branch family to support him.

As we were leaving the church, these boys were playing and climbing on the wall. they all turned when they saw that I had my camera out.Then just down the street we ran into more kids playing . . . the kids here are really special (see my last post).We had a wonderful day visiting friends and watching a man's life change for better.