Jon and Kathlene in Philippines: 1 August 2015

This week was extremely busy as we held a zone conference, gathering all 6 zones and 160 missionaries together over a 2 day period of time. We had to bring all missionaries in to offer them the opportunity to have a flu shot.

To make this a more productive event, Sister Reeder asked us Senior missionaries to do workshops throughout the two days as we worked the missionaries through their OPPORTUNITY to have a flu shot.

Elder Hoopes had the OPPORTUNITY to teach the missionaries about the proper way and the necessity of changing their waters filters correctly, a necessary but boring task. He also got to ENCOURAGE then to clean and de-clutter their apartments inside and out. He also got to refresh their minds as to appropriate haircuts, sideburns, and attire. By the end of 16 sessions he was absolutely bored stiff, not to mention that he came down with a terrible cold on day one.

I, on the other hand, had a great time. I was to encourage them in their English skills and help prepare them for an English Proficency rating exam that they are all encouraged to take before they go home. We have mentioned that in past blogs. It is like pulling teeth to get some of the missionaries to even speak in English.

But during my 16 sessions we had a great time. They were laughing and talking and making so much noise that I thought we were going to get in trouble! I used a practice test that is on line and then they had to act these things out. So, mostly it went really well. So many of the missionaries come to take the test without doing their English workbooks that they are given in the MTC, I have great hopes of getting all of these missionaries going home at high proficiency levels. I think this was a great start. It was especially good because they had so much fun and the native English Speakers can be a great help to the other missionaries.

Elder and Sister Watson showed the missionaries how to use Family History in their missionary work. I would have liked to attend their workshop but as you can guess conducting our own 8 sessions was more than enough for a day.

After our Friday workshop we had to rush down to the CES building to our piano class. We were done for.

I had two piano lessons this morning and Jon has been down all day trying to get over his cold. Taking full advantage of the fact that he is sick, I am doing the blog. Actually this is my first post on this mission so I guess it is about time.

Other fun things that happened this week include, working with a Sister Missionary who has Dengue fever. That has been interesting. She has been really sick and her platelet count went down to 20 which was very low. Sister Reeder and I were trying to get her to take our magic vitamin c potion but she didn't want to do it and wouldn't most of the time. They finally had to hospitalize her and give her IV's. I finally went to the hospital again and took more Vitamin C, made her companion take it and told her that I would bring the Meet the Mormon DVD over so they would watch it, but I wasn't going to bring it to her unless she would take the vitamin C. She promised and I brought the DVD to her, (actually , I was trying to keep them from dying of boredom rather than Dengue fever). Actually her platelets went from 45 to 121 overnight and she got to go home the next day. She got to come to the second day of Zone conference and was one happy missionary.

When we down loaded the picture we didn't remember that there was a nurse in the room. Then we realize, hey that's me! Always the nurse where ever I go!

We offered all our missionaries a swig of our vitamin c potion and especially encouraged the ones taking the shots to drink it. It's pretty sour and you should have seen some of the faces. I, of course didn't see too much because Sister Reeder was doing the health workshop while a nurse gave the shots. Other than our sick sister, no one was compelled drink it. And she still had a choice, (I think I have the only copy of Meet the Mormons in the Philippines and for missionaries who can't watch movies, DID SHE REALLY HAVE A CHOICE???)

Oh well, other than a missionary with a possible staph infection, or impetigo skin rash, it's been a pretty quiet week. For those parents out there, I am posting pictures of all of our zones. It may be like finding a needle in a haystack, but maybe you can see your son or daughter. Have fun, and we'll see what our next week brings.