Cock Roaches, Run for your lives!

Cock Roaches, Run for your lives!
You are probably asking, “Why is Sister Taylor talking about cock roaches?”
Well, let me tell you!
First of all, when the missionaries come into the MTC we tell them, “Don’t take food to your rooms; bugs like food!” We spray every 19 days, but with the moisture in the Philippines, it isn’t enough.
Second, Sister Riddle came down the other day with a big sore on her chin. When she went to the kitchen the cook told her that it looked like a cock roach bite. Sister Riddle yelled, “Cock roaches don’t bite!” “Yes they do,” said the cook. Sister Riddle ran down stairs to her computer and found that cock roaches do bite, but it is rare. She returned to her apartment and looked by the side of her bed; there lay a 2 ½ inch cock roach.
Now let me tell you the facts:
• They have been around for 280 million years.
• They laze (lounge) around 75% of the time.
• They can run 3 miles / hr. when they are up.
• There are 5, 000 species worldwide.
• The name comes from the Spanish word Cucaracha.
• The largest is from South America measuring 6 inches with a 1 foot wing span.
• They come out of water rather than food.
• They can hold their breath for 40 minutes.
• They have white blood.
• They carry TB, Cholera, leprosy, dysentery, typhoid, 40 bacteria’s (Salmonella), viruses, and can cause allergies.
• They are eaten in Cambodia as a snack.
We don’t snack on cock roaches here, and we sure enough don’t want them as bed bugs.
So, we are cleaning up and putting on our “Hazmat” outfit to spray.

Cock Roaches, Run for your lives

Debra S. Taylor Oct. 2011

Inspiring Missionary story

Please enjoy the attached little story about two wonderful missionaries. We can hardly speak of the marvelous spiritual events and people we encounter in our mission without being overcome!
George & Debbie

Here is a little story about Michael and Marvic:

A young man, Michael Navalta (taller) has a best friend, Marvic Pablico (shorter).  After school, he watched his friend go to church every Tuesday through Friday afternoon.  He put aside his shyness and asked Marvic why he went to church every afternoon.  Marvic tells him that he attends “seminary.”

            “So one day I ask him if I can go with him…”

            “Of course, yes.”

“So we go to the Church with our bicycle.  And that day is my first time to attend the seminary and I feel something different.  So because of that feeling, every Tuesday to Friday in the afternoon, we go together in the Church to attend the seminary.”

Soon, Marvic invites him to go to Church with him on Sunday.  Michel says,

“I accept it.  My first time attending the Sunday service is so special.  I feel the love of the members, same as the love of our Heavenly Father.”

  He soon met the missionaries because of the seminary teacher.

“They set an appointment to teach me more about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They teach me in the house of my friend.  His family supports me even though my Mother didn’t want me to be teach [sic] in our own home—until the time they set my baptism.  And I’m so happy when I was baptized.”

Michael and Marvic prepared and submitted their mission applications together.  They received their mission calls at the same time.  They were scheduled to enter the Philippines MTC on the same day.  When arriving, can you imagine their joy and surprise to learn that they were to be in the same district but were also to be missionary companions!  A small coincidence or divine Providence!? 

            “I’m so happy for being a member.  I will never forget my friend.  He’s my special friend.  The only time that we will be separated from each other [is] when we [will be] finally transferred to the field.  But it’s OK because we can see each other again after our mission.”

Texting clutter

Hello!?

Everybody’s texting! Even I have had to learn to use a Blackberry! Do you spend quite a lot of your day communicating through some device? Talk about cluttering up the airways and the airwaves! And cluttering up time and energy. Is this some of the pollution mentioned for the latter-days? Help, I’m sinking in signs and signals of how to communicate! Please read Sister Taylor’s “Short Message Service” document attached.

Love,

GT & DT

Your Friends

SMS [Short Message Service]

Debra Taylor 2011

I have been thinking about prayer and revelation. These two gifts seem to be the most important means of communication to and from God.  Without learning how to listen and to speak to our Heavenly Father, we cannot return to His presence; the road is too long and too rough. At times, even with these gifts, God’s messages may seem incomprehensible and possibly absent. The quest for clear communication becomes a lifelong endeavor.

To what can we compare prayer and revelation? How can we describe the language of God and the whisperings of the Spirit?

I thought it was like a Short Message Service [SMS]. Maybe this is a BFO [Blinding Flash of the Obvious!].

Our Father in Heaven speaks to our minds with a “still small voice” (Helaman5:30). With SMS it is a small sound “Beep”.  We feel the Spirit in our hearts.  It would be nice if we got a stronger vibration to better get our attention.  Lastly, we can read the small print or abbreviations if we know the right code.

The messages that we receive from our Heavenly Father are of warning, knowledge, peace, comfort, faith, hope, and charity. The list could go on forever. These messages are never profane, crude, degrading or insignificant. Messages from God are constant, comforting and transmitted continuously.

It is our choice to communicate to Him. We receive transmission according to the payments we are willing to make. For the cell phone we pay a monthly fee, but with the Lord we pay by:

1.       Asking

2.       Being Reverent

3.       Being Humble

4.       Keeping the Commandments

5.       Partaking of the Sacrament Worthily

6.       Studying the Scripture Daily

7.       Pondering the Message

8.       Studying  Options and Making Decisions

9.       Patiently Waiting

 (True To The Faith, 2004)

When we feel that the price is too high we may unplug, turn off, or decrease the band width. We choose to reply or not. The choice is all ours.

What kind of messages have you sent?

What kind of messages do you want to receive?

I’m sure that there are messages that Our Heavenly Father has received from us like:

RTS [Return To Sender]

NT INB ICDM [No Thanks, I Know Better and Can Do It Myself]

YR [Yea, Right]

GR [Gotta Run]

JAS [Just A Second]

And maybe, WIIFM [What’s In It For Me]

HELP

SOS

911

TIWFM [This Isn’t Working For Me!] Sister Riddle

LMAD [Let’s Make A Deal] Sister Riddle

IDK [I Don’t Know]

JW [Just Wondering]

CU [Can’t Understand]

IB [I’m Back]

TTUL [Talk To You Later]

POTS [Parents Over The Shoulder]

LY [Love Ya]

LMTCB [Left Message To Call Back]

What kind of messages do you want to receive?

Y [Yes]

STOP

WAIT

GO

RmbaYaMne [Remember Your Mine]

LMTCB [Left Message To Call Back]

M$ULKeCraZ [Miss You Like Crazy]

JTLUK [Just to Let You Know]

HITAKS [Hang In There and keep smiling]

HTH [Hope That Helps]

SPST [Same Place Same Time]

YAACOG [You Are A Child Of GOD]

ILVU [I Love You]

The SMS through the Holy Ghost is such a blessing in this life. It is crucial for our survival and happiness. It is the means to achieve the ultimate goal. Our goal is not only to hear the voice of the Lord, to feel the whisperings of the Spirit, to see the written word, but to walk and talk face to face with God!

You Have Been Called To Nineveh And Are Traveling By Whale!

By Debra Taylor

October 2011

Since being in the Philippines Missionary Training Center (MTC) people have asked what the MTC is like.

Obviously, the MTC is a center to prepare people to become missionaries. What it’s like is a little harder to explain. As I looked into the eyes of the missionaries the other day and thought about this question, I wondered to what I could compare their experience.

            My attention was drawn to a missionary sitting on the back row. He had just returned from isolation in the hospital for suspected TB. I asked him, “how was your experience in the belly of the whale?” Then the thought occurred to me that maybe the MTC is similar to Jonah’s experience inside the whale.

Like Jonah, all missionaries receive the word of the Lord through the still small voice of the Holy Ghost.  Today’s missionaries prepared and asked the bishop and stake president to call them into service. They were called and chosen. Each missionary received a signed letter from the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, in behalf of the Lord.

The Lord called Jonah to Nineveh and calls each of us to our own “type” of Nineveh. Sometimes it is easy to be brave and willing to go where the Lord wants us to go until the call really comes, and we are all alone. We may not realize how much we will miss our freedom, family, friends, cars, girlfriends, boyfriends, school, TV, laptops, I Pads, and cell phones. We may not like going to bed at 10:00 pm and arising at 6:00 am to be at gym at 6:15am. Jonah was worried when he received his specific call. Yes, there is a difference between Jonah and the modern missionaries. The difference is that our missionaries volunteered to go where ever the Lord wanted to send them.

As the story goes, Jonah tried to flee his assignment and ended up wet behind the ears, but the Lord in His mercy provided transportation to the mission field in the belly of a stinky fish to learn obedience.

The Lord also provides transportation for today’s missionaries and a nice stay inside the MTC. The White Handbook becomes their compass to their destination. The missionaries exchange the things left behind for a white shirt, Black Name Tag, Ministerial Certificate, scriptures, companion, humility, and sanctification through soul searching, prayer, and fasting. As they study the scriptures and “Preach My Gospel,” principles become clear and teaching becomes easier. They come to recognize the voice of the Lord and how He communicates to them personally. They receive the ordinances of the temple which give them power and authority to withstand evil. They come unto Christ.

Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the whale. The missionaries spend three weeks or more. The missionaries are deposited upon unknown countries like Jonah was vomited upon dry land. Their purpose past, present and future is to “Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.” PMG

Oh, that all God’s children could have the opportunity to be called to Nineveh and travel by whale.

Packed like Sardines

People here in the Philippines eat a lot of fish.  The fish often come from polluted lakes and rivers, but they are still fish and they are still eaten.  Our MTC is filled to the rafters—at full capacity for each group arriving.  We feel like we are packed and stacked in small rooms like sardines in a fish can for 19 days.  Sometimes we might smell like fish; then the missionaries are spit out and we swallow another batch.  It is glorious!  Please read Sister Taylor’s attached. 

President Taylor

Call 911, we need Helmets!

HELP!!!!!!!!  This is a 911 to the US.  The Philippines do not have 911.

            The Philippine Missionary Training Center needs the BYU football team to donate their helmets and a stretcher for the missionaries. Head on collisions are increasing as the President encourages and plays half court basketball and kick ball with the 18 inch turquoise ball.

            The red table tennis paddles used for the base markers do not seem to be the problem. We have implemented rigorous warm up exercise routines prior to the games; we wrap their heads with the black rubber stretch therabands, but that doesn’t seem to be sufficient.

PLEASE HELP!

Thank You,

Sister Taylor

Bayawak for Lunch

How is your end-of-Summer appetite doing?  Anyone for Bayawak?  

The Bayawak, a new species of Monitor Lizard in Luzon Philippines, is almost as big as the Komodo Dragon of Indonesia. The Bayawak can grow larger than 6 feet by eating the fruit of the pandamus tree. Thank goodness it isn’t carnivorous.

Recipes are not included.