Our Trip To Palawan

One of my favorite stops on the island was to visit with this humble beautiful family in the village of TubTub. They love the gospel but are more than 1/12 hrs walk one way from the branch. They are trying to be faithful. They were so gracious and offered us coconut juice . They live in the middle of a banana plantation. Only the boy in the striped shirt was theirs but the others were curious friends that just wanted to be with us. They live in a bamboo house like almost all the inhabitants of this island, many down long dirt roads in the jungle. Their daughter with the little girl was baptized a few months ago.

Our trip to Palawan was cultural overload. we were able to have a perfect mix of missionary work and sight seeing. We traveled at least 8 hours each day on bumpy dirt and gravel roads doing missionary work and traveling to the top of the Island and back and then to the bottom of the Island. It was overwhelming in beauty and spirit. A week we will not forget. We took 156 pictures so I tried to use a small portion to highlight our trip. Pam and Gaylin Thomas are friends of ours from Kansas. They are in the Manila Mission Presidency and we were overwhelmed at their dedication to the people on this Island. They wear themselves out in the service of the Lord everyday, they are an example to us. They showed us such a good time we are forever thankful to them.

Just one of the beautiful views of the Island

Elder and Sister Call and Sister Thomas

Pam and I getting ready to board our boat to take us to the Underground River nominated as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.

Entrance to the Underground River

President and Sister Thomas and Elder and Sister Call

The beautiful entrance to the cave.

My favorite picture coming out of the cave. It was truly beautiful inside. Eldon got the job of holding the spotlight. He did a good job of highlighting all of the wonderful formations inside. There were tons of bats everywhere.

Ryan the next few pictures are just for you. This is a monitor lizard in the wild. It was just on a trail. We saw several of them.There was one bigger than this but I was too afraid to get closer to him.

We saw several snakes in the trees. We also saw a family of monkeys with a big dominate male keeping watch over his family. I had never seen them in the wild before only in a zoo. I couldn't get a good picture of them.We also saw rare green parrots.

One of our boat guides got out and hacked into a piece of wood to find these wood worms. They were really gross and slimy.

This was the total of them he found for us. He brought them back to shore and washed them and offered us to have a piece. It is a delicacy to them. They are supposed to be full of protein, have youthful effects and be a aphrodisiac.Needless to say we took their word for it and didn't have a bite.

A street vendor preparing coconuts for us to drink the juice.It is very nutritious and everyone seems to love it.

I will have to be dying of thirst to acquire a taste for it. Eldon and I both thought it was awful.

Beautiful view of a sunset taken from out restaurant we ate at that night.

A fishing village we went to going up the coast.

We picked up Elders Ward and Lilywhite the teaching assistants to take them north to TayTay a brand new area just opened for the first time to the missionaries.We took a small break and they were already talking to the local people. They are really good missionaries.

The chapel used for the group meeting in TayTay. They have between 12-15 meeting there each Sunday. Hopefully it will increase with the missionaries there now.We also brought the pulpit for them that was donated from another Branch. It was a little tight in the van with us all.

This is what will be used as the baptismal font for this small group. This boy will be the first baptism soon. He is the group leaders son.

Another beautiful sunset from a restaurant in El Nido. We traveled to El Nido to meet and greet a member who owns the restaurant. He is a member from Denmark. President Thomas bumped into him at the market and he told him he was a member and said he had a restaurant. We went there just to meet him. Eldon even greeted him in Danish. He was so excited to see us and had a dinner special made for us and didn't charge us. It was fabulous. It was a big grilled fresh fish, rice and fruit and a Mango shake yum!!He said he would go to the group in TayTay which is very difficult to do. It is about 30 miles by tricycle over the worst bumpy roads imaginable.We stayed overnight in El Nido which is a beautiful resort. Almost everyone there were not Filipino. I had not seen that many white people together since we arrived in the Philippines.

The next morning we took a Filipino outrigger canoe for a trip island hopping. It was a little hard for our crew to understand that we wanted to ride and stop at an island but we would  not be snorkeling or scuba diving or swimming.I'm sure they thought we were weird.

This spot was the entrance to a hidden lagoon that most people would have either swam into or took a kayak into we had to just dream about what it would be like.

Our boat crew made us lunch. It was grilled fresh tuna, squid and shrimp with vegetables, rice and fruit.It was really good but a little overcooked. Fun to have it on the beach.

Our boat docking on the beach.

The view from the beach. The water was crystal clear. We could see schools of minnows and tiger fish close to the shore. I rescued a baby star fish that washed ashore. Their were lots of walking sea shells filled with crabs.

Obedient missionaries. By the water but not in the water.

The Del Torres family they are getting ready to go to the temple. We will be able to help them when they come.Elder Peres and Hart are the Zone Leaders helping to prepare them.

Sister Thomas helping the Lagan family with family group sheets to get ready for when they come to the temple.They are waiting to get clearance because they were married by a tribal chief but there is no record of it.

The catch of the day being dried by the sun.

The resort we stayed in the last night. It was down a dark washed out bumpy road in the jungle. I thought we were lost for sure and then this beautiful resort appeared.It is the best spot for a family reunion. Anyone interested? Only 20 dollars a night and the food was great and cheap. Barbecued chicken, rice and Mango shakes.

The top tree house was where we ate dinner . It was very quaint and beautiful.

The beautiful grounds. The eagle is an entrance to a kids playground. The jungle gym and swings were really short obviously built for Filipinos.

The tsunami causing the tide to rise and be rough on our drive back to the airport.We tired and worn out ready to get back to our normal routine and on cultural overload.