Beautiful green rice paddies of Mindoro.

Number two was also just changed 35 days ago. It is also black.

This is the most extreme case in the mission. The water there definately needs filtering. The missionaries prefer to buy water to drink. I don't blame them. We are so lucky to have water filters in every missionary apartment. The usual change schedule for the mission is filter one every two months and filter two every four months. Filter three once per year. These filters have cut down on sickness about 90% in the mission. They are a blessing. Ours doesn't ever get very dirty with minerals.

This is a number one in Pinamalayan. It has only been 35 days since this one was changed. It was pure white.

Missionary water filter change time. This one doesn't look so bad. We are change it for some sisters because we are there and it is time for a change.

This is filter number one. Notice filter number two on the counter with a black top. It is clean and white so it does not need changing.

Every school has their own uniform. I think the girls are so cute.

The Filipino people are very modest dressers, even in the heat.

This is the ferry we took home today from Mindoro. The Super Cat.

It is fast and a little more peso, but it is worth it.

Taal is one of the smalll cities in our area.

I blogged an old cathedral a while back. It was in Taal. This city was founded in 1572.
It is the balisong (knife) and barong (men's beautiful native dress shirt) capital of the Philippines. You can have ANYTHING embroidered here. It should be the capital of wedding gowns and any kind of other gown you can think of. Beautiful fabrics (pineapple or banana fiber) and all sorts of other fabulously luxurious fabrics made into gorgeous gowns with any kind of hand beading or embroidery on them is the name of the game here. There is many shops full of gowns and sewers. Elder Ganir is going to have a tie embroidered with the initial G. All this work and the prices are pretty cheap. They are a very talented people. Later, I will blog some gown shops, the next time we go thru Taal on missionary business.

Another innovative way to use everything available to them. Someone roofed their house with tires.

They also sold long ones to be used for speed bumbs on the roads. Tires and coconut trees sliced vertically are used for a lot of speed bumps here.

Cute little boy on the side of the road with his mom. She collects money from drivers as they saftley navigate the hairpin turns.

A nice view as we were coming down the mountain. This is Tayabas Bay, south eastern tip of Luzon.

Another vine view easier to see.

Look how big the vines are hanging from the trees. Tarzan could do some serious traveling with these vines.

He likes it!

We saw a whole family of wild monkeys in the trees. They ran fast when they saw us. This monkey is not so wild.

We topped to take some pictures and saw this monkey in the tree. We gave him a cracker. That is what he is looking at.

We saw lots of broken trees and branches.

The coconut trees did well in the storm. It was other trees and many banana trees that did not do so well. Of course we saw downed banana trees EVERYWHERE we went. Sorry this picture is a little hard to see.

We drove through a rain forest national park today.

It was about 10 days after the typhoon.

I thought I blogged this, but I can't find it, so here it is.

Another pretty day, and a very pretty place.

This is our mga kaibigan (friends)

Fred and Lyn Lyn and their family live close to our neighborhood. They have been listening to the missionary lessons for a couple of months now. They always have lots of good questions. They come to our house for Family Home Evening on Monday nights. Their children's names are: (oldest to youngest) Grace, Gilbert, Hannah, Joshua, and Hannah Lyn. Every time we singing primary songs, Hannah
Lyn just can not stop smiling. They are very polite and cute children. We pray everyday that they will find the faith they need to change their lives for the better. We have a language barrier, but we have fun communicating. With Fred's little knowledge of English and our little knowledge of Tagalog, we manage.

In just two days this orchid in front of our house went from two to four blooms.

Another overload too show!

The poor carabao is trying to see from under the heavy load of bamboo. We saw this on the way to church this morning.