Reunion with the Barrizo family-- after 48 years!

Greeting Sister Epifania Barrizo after 48 years

Back:Russel, Harold, Ron and M-R,;
Front: Wilma, Mama Epifania, Carol, Joy (missing Jean and Roger)

L to R: Wilma, Mama E., Carol, Joy (JetJet), Chad, Russell

We really enjoyed the Baumgartner children.  Here is Logan, who loved to draw. 

From Ron: We recently had a wonderful experience of having a family come to visit us here at the temple.  I had taught the Barrizo family in the City of Davao 48 years ago.  Back in 1970, the parents and older children were baptized five days after I was transferred from Davao to Manila.  18 of our contacts were baptized that Saturday, so I was disappointed to be transferred.  The last thing I did before leaving Davao was to visit the Barrizo family at their home.  A poor-quality photo of Sister Barrizo and a few of the kids in their house, which I took that day, helped me remember them over the years.  Sister Barrizo still has the same bright smile these many years later.  

So how did we get connected? When members from Davao came to the temple last February, we told them about the various families I had taught in Davao.  These folks took word back to the Barrizos that Mary-Rose and I were serving here at the temple in Cebu.  Jacinta, who lives in new York, had also corresponded with us by email -- she received our email address from a Brother Gray who was writing a history of the early "pioneers" of the church in the southern part of the Philippines.  We happened to sit by Brother and Sister Gray at a 50-year anniversary reunion of the Philippines Mission in Utah last October.  So the Barrizo family made it a point to find us here in Cebu as part of their reunion travels.  They came to the Patron House on Thursday evening.  I had tears rolling down my face as I gave them hugs.  They came up to our apartment and we enjoyed visiting for a couple hours, but they had to catch a boat to another island, Bohol a tourist spot, at 5 in the morning so we could not keep talking all night.  On Saturday, a number of the family attended a session at the temple in the morning, the shift that I coordinate.  It was good to see many of them at the temple.  In keeping with Grandma Jane's example, we fed the family in our apartment, 14 people in total.  It was heart-touching to again hug the mother (grandmother).  My eyes filled with tears, but it was a wonderful experience.  They may come again before we leave next year – it costs money to come.  One lives in England and a couple in the USA, as well as those from Davao.  Seven of the ten siblings were here.  It was so good to see them all!

Dinner with everyone on August 12th.  Russell is taking the picture.

Taaaaxi!

So many taxis!

One of our younger (34-year-old) temple workers, Kim, is on bed rest with a high-risk pregnancy.  She has been a devoted worker and loves to be with people, but is quite isolated socially now and is feeling nauseous and dizzy much of the time.  We have texted but I felt like I needed to go visit her.  Ron was not excited about driving in Cebu traffic to make a “woman-talk” visit, so I decided to take a taxi.  By myself!  Ron and I are always together when we go out, so this was new and scary.  We’ve had some good cab drivers and some that looked a little sketchy, but we got where we were going okay.  But by myself was a new adventure.  I prayed that I would get a taxi driver who would be safe and who would want a copy of the Book of Mormon.  The guards at the gatehouse will flag a taxi for us when we need one, so soon I was getting in one of the 7,000 taxis that crowd the streets here.  Good first sign—the seatbelts work.  Bad second sign—he doesn’t know how to find the address.  I got in front to show him an app called “Mapsme” that is like googlemaps, not as good, but doesn’t need data.  He was very cooperative and we did find the address easily.  But that’s getting ahead of myself.  We started with small talk, and I asked about his family.  He has two children.  Then he asked me what I thought about the end of the world, because his 9- and 12-year-old children ask him every day, “Is the world going to end tomorrow, Pa?”   I pulled up Matthew 24 on my phone and I read it and gave him some ideas and some of my thoughts.  I told him that he could reassure his kids that the world wouldn’t end too soon—still too many prophecies to be fulfilled.  Then I asked him if he would like the copy of the Book of Mormon that I had brought along.  He told me that he already had one, and pointed out a small card on his dash that was a picture of Jesus and children—it was a copy of the Articles of Faith in Cebuano.  A missionary had given it to him once when they were talking on the street.  And he wanted the Book of Mormon for his wife!  I didn’t know where to start, but I started to tell him about the gospel.  He really got an earful since our ride took more than an hour!  

Vilmar, the driver, carries this picture with him as he drives, because, "Christ loves the children."

I told him about temple marriage, being a forever family, baptism, priesthood authority, Apostasy and the Restoration—including the First Vision, tithing, Word of Wisdom, fasting, Joseph Smith receiving and translating the plates so we have the Book of Mormon.  I said several times, “I’m probably telling you so much that you can’t understand it!  The missionaries could explain it so much better!” But he would say, “It’s okay, sister, I like to hear you talk.”  When we got to Kim’s house, she suggested that I could make an appointment with him to come back and pick me up in 1 ½ hours.  I didn’t know that taxis would do that, but he was happy to get another big trip.  After my good visit with Kim that was waaay too short, the taxi came back and beeped for me.  As we were leaving the housing development where Kim lives, we had to stop at the guard house there for the driver to get his driver ID back.  Our temple guards don’t do that, but it’s quite common here.  There were two women, and the guard asked if they could ride with us, since it wouldn’t be out of our way.  They got in, and we started to chat—and they started to ask about why I was in Cebu, and what we believed.  They both had Mormon friends and both already had copies of the Book of Mormon!  So as they got out, we exchanged phone numbers and we will be getting together sometime!  Then I still had ½ hour or more with my captive audience.  Some of our topics this time were infant baptism, and the Holy Ghost, and personal revelation, and how he is shy to talk English and I am shy to talk Cebuano—but NOT shy in English!   I read and explained Moroni 10:3-5 to him and he really enjoyed it.  He told me that he prays and reads scriptures—and he pointed to the Book of Mormon—every day with his family.  So I was thrilled to meet him and got his name and address.  He was so sweet and sincere and I would love to meet his wife and kids.  We will see what happens!