We had another baptism in our branch on Saturday (July 29).  He is 16 years old and his name is Justine Mise Jose.  On the far left is Wilson Vitangcol, the branch mission leader.  On the far right in the baptismal clothes is Elder Carino.  He just got out of the MTC a couple of days previous and this is his first area.  Elder Tobias is next to him and we've known him for several months.  He let his companion, Elder Carino, baptize Justine to give the elder a taste of success early in his mission.  Next to Justine is his mother who was baptized a couple of months ago.

We've been watching a house being built on our block.  The home construction here is very different than in Canada.  There's no insulation built into new homes.  Because of the climate it isn't necessary but one of the side effects is that all the outside noise such as crickets, engines, music from outdoor karaoke parties in the neighbourhood or music from the nearby mall, is practically invited into our house.  We're used to basements being dug to start the building but that doesn't happen here.  They are built on ground level and the construction is mostly from cement blocks which then have concrete smoothed over them to make them flat.  Then they are painted (if you can afford it).   If paint is not affordable the walls stay grey and gloomy.

                                     March 16, 2017

April 30, 2017

July 30, 2017

This is our district on July 24, 2017.  Three elders are being transferred and Elder Leishman, our district leader, is going home tomorrow.  He's been here for 2 years and has finished his service.

This is a photo we took on July 23, 2017 at our meetinghouse.  The young man, Jerwin Butuhan, was visiting his father who is in our branch and also in the photo.  Jerwin was a companion to Mark Bautista while he was on his mission in northern California.  We took this picture on Sunday and then on Sunday night Luke sent it to us on Facebook.  Mark had sent it to him and he passed it on to us.  We talked to Jerwin at church and told him that Mark was living in our house in Calgary.  Small world!

This is a video of the groundskeepers cutting the grass beside our house.  Nobody uses a lawn mower here.  Instead they use weed whackers probably because the lawn areas are full of garbage and critters and are uneven.  Sister Bremner says that they also use scissors to cut the grass.  We're also used to people gathering the cuttings afterward and discarding them.  But here the cuttings just stay where they are and fertilize the ground.

We had a zone activity on July 17, 2017.  This game that was played is called "Human Battleship".  It's played on both sides of a volleyball net which is covered in sheets to block the view from one side to another.  The players lay down in their respective courts and occupy the same space for the entire game.  They take turns lobbing small waterballoons into the opposite side of the net and if a player is hit, he is out of the game and stands out of bounds. Waterballoons are fun to use because if someone gets hit, he also gets wet.  We were thinking that this game would be impossible to use in our gyms in north America because they are wood but we decided that small balls could be used instead.

This is our zone on July 17, 2017 except for Elders Rodgers, Bremner and West who were taking pictures.

We saw this motor-driven plough the other day in a rice field.  We think he's ploughing the area before planting rice in it.  It looked like a muddy, yucky job.  We have seen the same thing done with a carabao pulling the plough.  In that case the carabao AND the ploughman get muddy.

This photo shows a field in the distance with young rice plants growing.  Their colour is gorgeous.

We are into the rainy season in the Philippines.  That means that it rains every day, usually in the afternoon/evening for several hours.  The ground is very saturated and the water that falls has nowhere to go.  Especially on the roads local flooding develops after a few minutes of heavy rain.

Our district president asked the branch leaders to fill our their "My Family" booklets.   This is the picture that we sent to him.

Our district has been "mapping" members of the branches.  This means that you locate the member's house on a Google Map and put a pin where it is.  That way all the members' houses can be found.  You must realize that houses do not have addresses and many of them are not located on roadways but are several minutes walk from a roadway along a dirt path.  The branch members who have not been mapped appear on the list as red words while the others are blue; so you know who has not been "mapped".  Our branch was 98% done and we only had a couple of people left to find.  One was named Venn Nephi and he was 12 years old.  Bremners knew him because he had been baptized in their branch in October of 2016 while he was living with his aunt who is an active member.  Subsequently his mother returned and took him and his two younger brothers, age 2 and 4 to San Ildefonso (about 25 km away).  Then the mother got a job in Saudi Arabia and left her three sons in San Ildefonso.  She left them at a boarding house in the care of two people who are in their twenties, are not related, and did not expect to have a ready-made family.
    So Nephi's records were transferred into our branch and it was our job to find him.  The only clue we had was a contact number for the lady who is his caretaker.  The numbers that the aunt had were not working and we felt that there were no options except this one number for the caretaker.  So we drove to San Ildefonso and picked up the missionaries to help us. Elder Tobias (who is Filipino) called the number and the lady agreed to meet us and take us to Nephi.  We made a visit there and while we were there Elder Rodgers called the aunt and Nephi talked to her.  We made arrangements to pick him up for church on Sunday.  He didn't have any shoes so we bought some the night before and then picked up Nephi for church.  He is a deacon so he passed the sacrament and then went to Sunday School and Priesthood meetings.  He got along well with the other deacons and gave the closing prayer in Priesthood meeting.
     The aunt is hoping to arrange for the three boys to fly to Visayas (another island) to live with their grandmother and grandfather.  The mother in Saudi agreed to send money to pay for their flights.  Hopefully this will happen before too many weeks have passed.
     We feel like finding him was a miracle.  Since we had so few clues it was unlikely that we would have found him without the intervention of the Lord.  It reminds us that He loves His children and directs his servants if they will "go and do"  like the original Nephi did, "not knowing beforehand" and He watches out for them, especially if they are young.  👍

Nephi and his brothers

Our mission president was changed on July 1, 2017.  On the 7th we had zone conference and met him for the first time.  President and Sister Hughes are now in charge of this mission.  After zone conference we went out to dinner with all the senior couples and President and Sister Hughes.   They are second from the front of the photo.  It was also the "last supper" for the Broadheads who are going home to Ohio next week.  Afterwards, on our way home, we managed to get lost in downtown Caloocan and drove through a maze of narrow, unlit streets some of which also contained an outdoor market, before we found the way out and then got home 3 hours later.  Thank you very much, GPS: whoever programmed you was using streets that existed at the time but no longer do.

This is a store we passed on the way to Fairview Mall in Manila.
We've seen that name before.

This street won the prize for worst electrical wiring.

We had a district activity on July 3, 2017.  We played waterballoon volleyball and games at the San Miguel church and then had a pizza lunch provided by the senior couples.  We are called the Himni District.

(l to r) Elders Brown, Slade, Ronda, Nanai-Seturo, Leishman, Morris, Racho, Tobias, Elder and Sister West

This is the tie that Ken wore to church on Sunday because it was still July 1 at home.  Our way of celebrating Canada Day.