Sunday-Day of Rest-Whew!

December 21, 2008: Sunday was a much needed day of rest, although we still did a bit of traveling and site seeing. We went to church about an hour away from Naga at the Pamplona Branch. They have a brand-new building which will be dedicated in the next few months.

Here are the primary children at the Pamplona Branch. I wish I had a picture of the Young Women. I spent a few minutes visiting with about 6 of them. There are 12 YW in the branch...the same number as in my ward.

Hey, have you wondered where we are staying? Here's a picture of the Naga mission home. My bedroom is the second floor window on the far left of the picture. Terri's window looks out at the big green tree to the right of the picture. My room is above the gated driveway where Brother Willy guards the mission home. Every night little kids gather at the gate and sing Christmas songs & beg for money or food.

Sunday night we went down to Panganiban Road and viewed all the neighborhood creches on display along the side of the road. Apparently there is a competition for the best nativity creche. Here's most of the ones we saw. Which one do you like best?

The cool thing about these creches is they where mostly made of native material. For example the one above is made with bamboo. And the one below has the faces carved in coconuts.

And this one is made from straw and grasses.

This neighborhood used recycled water bottles and bicycle tires to make the fence area at the front of the nativity.

This creche is from whiskey bottles (the tent part) with lights inside. The Mary, Joseph, & Baby are actually made out of the whiskey bottle caps.


This creche was at the gas station and was made out of random car stuff. For example, the gifts from the wise men are oil cans and bottles spray painted and covered in glitter. The gold decorations on the blue area of the creche is actually car parts. And check out the decorative star made out of oil bottles spray painted gold in the photo below.

This was our favorite creche made out of white plastic, white lights, and tree branches spray painted white. It was very simple and beautiful.

And check out this awesome star made out of sea shells. I wish I had space in my luggage to bring one home!