The Rest of Cebu Island Trip

This is our fifth week back from the temple closure in July and we are having wonderful experiences in the temple.  The last blog talked about our swimming with whale sharks which was only one day of our trip around Cebu Island during the closure so we will now finish up with some of the other things we were able to see here in the Philippines.

We were at the beach several times and at this particular one as we were looking for sea shells we noticed that if you stood still for less than a minute many of the small shells started moving.  Baby hermit crabs were everywhere in the shells.  These two are in Elder Sorensen's hand.

This is Tumalog Falls.  We loved being here.  The volume of water coming off the falls was far less than other falls we have seen but with the outcropping of rocks and the water being dispersed in numerous directions creating a fine mist, it was just beautiful and peaceful.  Notice the large bamboo plants on the right side.

Elder and Sister Sorensen enjoying Tumalog Falls.  It's great being Senior Missionaries.

Sister Sorensen enjoying the peaceful atmosphere while soaking her feet in the pool at the base of the falls. 

There were all these little fish that came up and were giving Sister Sorensen a foot massage.

This is Kawasan Falls, much more commercialized than Tumalog Falls but beautiful.

If you wanted to you could get on a raft and actually go into the falls, for a price of course.  We stayed dry.

Walking back to the van from the falls we saw this Nanny with her Kids enjoying lunch.

The last night we spent on our trip was at the Virgin Beach Resort which was highly rated by some on the web.  As we continued down a long mostly dirt road we were beginning to wonder.

The welcome sign seemed to be a little damaged, what could that mean?

This was the resort.  We were the only guests there and survived the night but were glad to be on our way.  This area was hit hard by the earthquake and typhoon that devastated areas of the Philippines last year.  We could honestly say that "at one time" this was a nice resort.

We were at the North end of Cebu Island which is highly agricultural as can be seen in this picture.  We loved the open space.

This is one of the many sugar cane fields that we passed in this area.

This was by Bogo still in the North.  Cultivating a field using Carabao, which is an Asian water buffalo and the National Animal of the Philippines.

Swimming with Whale Sharks

The second week the temple was closed we decided to make a complete trip around Cebu Island to see more of the Philippines.  The first place we stayed was at the Garden Stay Resort in Lagunde which is close to Oslob where we planned on swimming with whale sharks.  We were not disappointed.  Just a few facts about whale sharks:

✦ Whale sharks are massive creatures. The largest whale shark to have been recorded weighed 47,000 pounds and measured 41 feet long.

✦ The dot and stripe patterns on a whale shark's body are like human fingerprints. They are unique to each individual shark.

✦ Whale sharks have about 3,000 teeth set in 300 to 350 rows. However, these animals being filter feeders, the teeth are not of much use.

✦ They have very big mouths, almost 5 feet (1.5 meter) wide.

✦ Whale sharks live for 70 to 100 years, with some living for an even longer time.

✦ These species of fish are slow-moving. When they are moving in water, they have a speed of not more than 2 to 3 knots per hour.

✦ Female whale sharks are larger in size than the males.

Pictures just can't come close to sharing the experience of swimming with these amazing creatures but here are just a few to share with you.   Sorry the pictures underwater aren't better but they were not taken by a professional photographer but by the boatmen that took us out to the whale sharks.

The four couples that went together.  Left to right starting in the back: Elder and Sister Johnson, Arizona, Elder and Sister Sorensen, Elder and Sister Henthorn, Washington, Front, Elder and Sister Decker, Arizona.

This is Toni owner of the Garden Stay Resort.  He and his brother own this home and rent it out.  Toni was a wonderful host. 

Entering the Garden Stay Resort.  The Johnsons and Deckers stayed in the cottages on the right and the Henthorns and Sorensens stayed in the home just past the van.

Yes it can be tough sitting at the edge of the ocean seeing the waves roll in and watching the sun set. 

This is in Oslob where we had the wonderful experience with the whale sharks.  At first we went to the structure on the right for orientation.  We were cautioned not to touch the whale sharks because you may injure them.  There can be a fine and time in jail for intentionally touching one.  There were zoologists present to watch all the visitors and insure the whale sharks were not harmed in any way.  If we had sunscreen on we were told to wash it off before going in the water.  The boats you can see are where the whale sharks are.  They are fed everyday starting at 6:30 am until noon so they will come to this area for people to see.  This day there were seven sharks who had come in to feed.

Yes they really are sharks as you can see in this picture.

This is Elder Sorensen with a very close encounter.  Twice he had to move out of the way so a whale shark didn't hit him as it swam by.  At one time the fins and tail of one were within inches of hitting him.

Just how big is this whale shark?  BIG

Sister Sorensen warning the sharks to not get too close.  At one time we were surrounded by three whale sharks. Notice the one behind us here.

Whale shark coming through.  Elder Sorensen can be seen just behind the dorsal fin and Sister Sorensen is in the pink on the right.  The foot is one of the boatmen that took us out to the sharks.

Elder and Sister Sorensen getting a close up view of a feeding whale shark.

Yes they have very LARGE mouths.

Sister Sorensen just above a whale shark.

Elder Sorensen floating as a whale shark goes by.

Did we really just experience this?  We were only allowed thirty minutes in the water but words can't explain the emotions it created..

First Week of Temple Closure

The temple was closed for two weeks for maintenance beginning July 14th so the temple missionaries took the opportunity to see more of the Philippines close to Cebu.  We went with four other couples to the Island of Bohol, which is a two hour boat ride from Cebu City, on a fast boat.  It is hard to truly convey what it was like but hopefully through pictures you will get a feel for what we were able to experience.

This is the type of boat that we traveled on to the Island of Bohol.  Some of the baptistry groups use this type of transportation to come to the temple. There are lots of seats inside and no one got sea sick either going or coming back.

This is the Oasis Resort where we stayed.  It is located on Panglao Island just  across a bridge from Bohol.  It was a nice place to stay, remember we are in the Philippines though, and was very close to the beach.  The food here was very good.  The owner actually lives in Cebu not far from the Temple.  He was here when we were and visited with us several times while we were eating.  He was impressed with how the church takes care of its buildings and helps people.

This is an old Catholic Church and school built in 1872.  It sustained damage from the earthquake that hit the Philippines on October 15, 2013 just one month before the Super Typhoon hit.  The epicenter of the earthquake was in Bohol.

This is inside the church.  There was some damage in this area but more on the opposite end from where I took this picture.  It was interesting that they allowed pictures in the church but not in the museum which was also in this building.

This was a different old Catholic Church in another part of Bohol that received extensive damage in the earthquake.  There were numerous old churches in the Philippines that were damaged either by the earthquake or the typhoon.

We stopped at a small zoo, maybe a dozen animals total, where Sister Sorensen wanted to play with this iguana. 

Sister Sorensen playing with Melia the Burmese Python.  It was hard to hold up because of how heavy this snake is.  The world's largest python was here last year when the missionaries came but it died a month after they saw it.

Men working in a rice pattie. Rice is the number one staple food in the Philippines.

This is a bamboo bridge that we walked across, mainly to say we did.

A close up view of how the bamboo was woven to make the bridge.

We had to stop at the Tarsier Conservation Area.  Philippine Tarsiers are among the smallest primates in the world and are only found in the Philippines.

Tarsiers are nocturnal so we caught them while they were trying to sleep.  They eat mainly insects but will eat other small animals such as lizards.  The biggest threat to their survival is habitat destruction.

This Tarsier opened his eyes part way to see what was waking him up.  They are small enough to easily fit in your hand.

We had to visit the chocolate hills of Bohol.  The chocolate hills consist of no less than 1268 hills. They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 meters high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown. We were there during the rainy season so they were green not chocolate.  Geologists have not reached consensus on how they where formed. The most commonly accept theory is that they are the weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of a impermeable layer of clay.  Many of the hills experienced land slides during the Bohol earthquake.  

While we were in Bohol there was a typhoon that hit Manila and caused several deaths.  We were far enough south that we got some  of the rain and wind.  Some of the waves were fairly high and I was glad we weren't in the typhoon.  As we were watching the waves crash into the shore this Filipno walked out into the waves and then started swimming out to the boat on the left.  I didn't want to try swimming in this rough water.  Shortly after he made it to the boat two more men went into the water and swam to a different boat.  They were checking to make sure their boats were safe.  There were two boats that sank here this day because of the waves. 

Our final day in Bohol we took this boat out to the Island of Balicasag to do some snorkeling.  The wind had died down so we were safe.  What a beautiful area and a great snorkeling area.  There was a steep drop off out just a small distance and there were lots of fish there.  One of the other guides was feeding fish close to us and there were so many fish around him it was amazing.  To bad we don't have an underwater camera to share with you.

These are a few of the resident of Balicasag.  We sat here and ate food that we brought and they were very willing to sell us items to remind us of our trip.  The tourist trade is the main source of income for the residents. 

Sister and Elder Sorensen walking barefoot on the beach.  We never expected this kind of experience on our mission.

Fruits of Labor Past

We serve as the baptistry coordinators on Tuesday Afternoons so we get to meet groups coming from many areas within the Cebu City Temple District.   The groups that come the first of the week usually arrive on Monday evening and stay in patron housing until Thursday Morning.  While here the youth will perform baptisms twice a day on Tuesday and Wednesday and then once on Thursday before they leave for a total of five experiences in the baptistry while they are here.  The leaders also participate in other temple ordinances when not assisting their youth in the baptistry.  It takes some of the groups up to twelve hours by boat to get to Cebu and the temple.  Other groups fly into Cebu to serve in the temple.

Our son, Ammon, served in the Tacloban Philippines Mission in 2002 and 2003, which is now in the Cebu City Temple District.  We had Ammon send us information on the areas where he served so that when groups come from those areas we could find out if they knew him from his mission.  Last week, July 1, 2014, the group that came for baptisms was from the Biliran District.  That was the second area where Ammon served and he was assigned in Cabucgayan.  Sister Sorensen has an opportunity to visit with the youth and leaders so she inquired if they remembered an Elder Sorensen.  Two of the sisters said they remembered him but there have been several Elder Sorensens that served in Tacloban so we often wonder if they are remembering our Elder Sorensen.  We contacted Ammon and asked if he could send some pictures of him on his mission so we could show them to make sure it was him they remembered.  Ammon immediately sent us some pictures which we printed and LuAnn saw the sisters in the temple the next day and shared the pictures with them.  They said that Ammon was the Elder Sorensen they remembered.  One of the pictures he sent was of a baptism service at Kasabangan Falls and when they saw that picture they immediately began pointing out people in the picture they knew and said that one of the men was also here with their group.  Sister Sorensen arranged for us to meet with them at patron housing when we finished in the temple that evening.  What a tender mercy that meeting was.  Santiago Masuela said that the picture of the baptism was his baptism and that Elder Sorensen (Ammon) had taught him.  What a wonderful experience we had visiting with them and seeing some of the fruits of the labors of one of our children.  We felt Ammon had been guided in sending the picture of Kasabangan Falls because that was the picture that really connected us with these dear members. We wanted to share these pictures with you.

Elder Ammon Sorensen on Biliran looking South South East toward Leyte. 

The baptism service at Kasabangan Falls on Biliran.  At this time the area was almost like walking down a jungle path to get to the falls.  It has become quite commercialized since.  Elder Sorensen is on the left.

These are the Filipino Saints we had such a wonderful experience meeting.

Pictured Left to Right.

Elder and Sister Sorensen

President Leonard Mollare, 2nd counselor in the Biliran District Presidency.  Two of his children were in the picture of the falls and are now serving missions in the Philippines.

Santiago Masuela, this is the brother that Ammon taught and was baptized when the picture was taken.  He served as a counselor in the Branch Presidency under President Corpin and was called as the next Branch President when President Corpin was released.  He has also served twice on the District High Council.

Isagani L. Corpin, he was the Branch President at the time of the baptisms and his daughter was one of those baptized.  He was released as Branch President to serve on the District High Council and has also served twice in that calling.

Helen C. Carroll, sister to Isagani L. Corpin and wife of Bob Carroll an American who has since passed away.  She was one of the sisters that remembered Elder Sorensen.  She was not a member when he was serving his mission but her husband, who was a member, was always inviting the missionaries over.  Ammon has a picture of him with Helen, Bob and their son.

Marlvic Urgel Corpin, she was the other sister that remembered Elder Sorensen.

President Alkie T. Corpin, 1st Counselor in the Biliran District Presidency and husband to Marlvic.  He was not a member when Elder Sorensen served in Biliran.

Change of Seasons

Since we have been getting rain almost every day for the past few weeks I guess we are officially in the rainy season in the Philippines.  It really struck me last month when I was talking with one of my children about gardening that I missed the change of seasons.  As we talked about the possibility of still getting frost on Memorial Day I realized that it seems to be the same here everyday.  The temperature only changes from hot to real hot and the humidity from humid to more humid.  There does seem to be a change in the plants as different blossoms have appeared in the last month so I guess the plants know there is a different season.  I am amazed at how many trees have blossoms on them. We enjoy the flowers so much that I thought I would show some new ones that weren't in blossom last month when I posted flowers.  Hope you enjoy these also.