Mabuhay -Deseret Foundation

This is another very wonderful program that is available to us. When we find children that have Cleft-Lips or palate, burns, club feet and below the knee amputees and do not have the financial ability to have them corrected, we can refer them to the Mubuhay -Deseret Foundation where they will help these families at no cost to them. This young man was referred to the foundation by President and Sister Lesueur, the missionary couple that we replaced here on Palawan. The first picture was prior to his treatment, the 2nd picture is after the first surgery and how he looked when we first met him and his family. The third picture is of him and his little brother after the final surgery. When we first met him he was so shy, he hid behind his mother and would hardly talk. When we met him two weeks ago he ran up to Sister Golding, gave her a big hug and a kiss, he wouldn't quite talking and laughing. It is hard to imagine what his life would have been like without this help. They have helped so many people here and we are continually looking for these opportunities to help. When I published the post it changed the order of the pictures. The picture that I referred to as the first is him with the cleft -lip and the tooth sticking out through his lip under his nose. You can also make all pictures bigger by just clicking on the picture. 

Wonderful weekend in Palawan

We had a very special week, President and Sister Howard came in for District interviews on Friday, that is always a special day to be able to spend the day with all twenty (20) of the great missionaries here on the island. President Howard called before he left Manila and said that he had had a very stressful week (among other things, he had to send one of his missionaries home) and needed to get away, so he asked if we could find something peaceful and relaxing to do on Saturday. So we took our 2ND day off since we have been here and President & Sister Howard took their 2ND day off except we have only been here since December and President & Sister have been here since last July. We have always loved President Howard, but our love and respect for him has grown so much, he is incredible and the missionaries love him. I could not even begin to explain his work load. With 180 missionaries that he personally interviews every six weeks, and his interviews are not just a hi how are you doing, he talks to each one of them for 15 plus minutes and among other things reviews the weekly letters that they each send him. When they send him their weekly letters all 180 he not only reads them, but marks them up making notes and comparing their progress to previous letters, so that he can discuss them in detail during their interviews. He had pictures of all 180 missionaries sent to him before he left Las Vegas, so he knew the name and face of each and every missionary before he got here and was able to greet each of them by name the first time he met them. That is just a small part of what he does, but that impresses us so much, and the missionaries love it.

When we first arrived here we told you how beautiful it was, but was surprised that the beaches were not nicer and the access to them better. Well I take that back, we found this place about 20 minutes from our home, paved roads all the way. we rented a boat and a two man crew for the day. You can have them take you to any or all of six islands, and spend as much time on each as you want. We ended up not spending the whole day, but going two three islands, spending about and hour to and hour and a half on each. The beaches were incredible, the sand was so soft and clean, the water is so warm that when you walk out into it you can hardly tell how deep it is. We didn't go snorkeling, but we are told it is fantastic. We did wade out and feed the fish, layed on the beach and just relaxed.

Sunday morning President and Sister Howard had to go back to Manila and We drove two hours to Roxas for church. This is only the 2ND time that we have been to Roxas, the first time was the first week that we were here and we had forgotten how beautiful that part of the island is, and the road is paved all the way, unlike the South end of the island where we spend so much of our time.It was just a wonderful ride up and back and the people there are so nice. The meetings were great, three young kids that were baptized the day before bore their testimonies. The missionaries really did their job with this family, they really understand what it is all about, and expressed themselves so well. Last week we started teaching the waitress at our favorite restaurant and her family. We were going to teach them ourselves, but found that Myra and her father were the only ones that speak any English, and neither of them understand well enough to understand the discussions, so we took two of the elders with us to teach them and it seems to be going great. In March the two Districts and Zones for our missionaries here on the island did great. The Puerto Zone (the three Branches where we live in Puerto, plus Roxas had twenty four (24) baptisms and the Narra Zone(five branches down South had thirteen (13). These missionaries and the people here are incredible, we love them.

Elder Faitangane

We have told you previously that we had a sad story, but I just couldn't write about it until we had some good news to go with it. One of our Elders her on Plawan, climbed a coconut tree that is in the yard at their apartment. He had picked two coconuts and was reaching for the third one when he fell. I'm not exactly sure how far he fell, I'm trying to remember my geometry lesson to figure it out, not wanting to exaggerate I had earlier estimated a lower number, but our collective assessment is approximately 40'. At the time of the fall the branches were greener and not hanging down below the coconuts as they were today when we took the picture, six weeks later. When he fell he landed on his bottom on the left side, then roller a little ways to his right, We were told that had he hit square on his bottom the damage would have been much worse. there were no scratches or cuts anywhere on his body indicating that it was a free fall from the top, with nothing to break the fall. At first he didn't have any movement in either his arms or legs, but a short time later the feeling came back and he was able to move. Sister Golding and I hurried out the the apartment to find him laying on his back on the concrete floor and three other very scared Elders looking on. The four of us gave him a Priesthood Blessing then after receiving some advice from a member Doctor, carried him to our van and took him to the hospital. After taking ex rays and CT-SCANS the Doctors and technicians couldn't believe that he still had movement in his arms and legs. He had three large burst brakes in his 3rd vertebra, three cracks in his fourth as well as cracks in the 1st, 2ND, 5Th and 6Th, as well as a collapsed lung. The Doctor in Palawan said that there was no option but surgery and that he would consult with some other specialist to determine exactly when & exactly what needed to be done. The test results were also sent to Salt Lake City for the Doctors to evaluate and their decision was not to operate that this young man was in such good physical shape, had lived a good clean life and felt that he would be able to heal with strict bed rest. He has been laying on his back on a board here in the hospital for six weeks now. They took him for his 2ND CT-SCAN yesterday and again the Doctor and the technicians could not believe the results. As I was waiting for the results the technician told me that the preliminary observation was that there was not a lot of change, then about fifteen minutes later he said "this is amazing, come and look at this" He said I can't even see where some of these cracks were. I explained that this young man was very strong and did exactly as he was told for the past six weeks, the technician, not a member of the church, looked up at the ceiling and said "it is more than that, this young man is very close to a much higher power than us". The other cracks are healing well and there are signs of healing in the bigger brakes in the 3rd vertebra, and everything is in a good alignment with good spacing. Once we get a back brace from Manila, they will help him up and see how he handles the pressure of standing and walking. The Doctors now feel that it will still take several months before the healing is complete, but they still can't believe that he survived the fall and has any movement, let alone complete use of his hands and legs, and are projecting a complete recovery. The Lord loves these young men, even when they make stupid mistakes like climbing a coconut tree.