Missionary Work- Replanting seeds of Faith and Hope as well as rice.

Dear Family and Friends,

We work to re-plant seeds of faith and hope in the members of the Church who are not active.

       In Matthew 13:31 we read: .....
 31 ¶Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:

 32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

   Surprisingly, right now it has started to rain - VERY HARD like a waterfall - (not when I began to write this blog - 1 paragraph ago) - so you can see how fast it begins to rain hard !

    5 minutes after I wrote this, Elder Roberts went outside, and it has rained about 1 inch !

Now back to our blog.... 

Here in the Philippines, rice is the staple food. 
   The farmers plow the new field and plant many seeds next to each other. Then when it has grown some, they flood the field and let it grow more.   When it is about 1 foot high, they pull out bunches of the rice plants and  replant individual plants back in the flooded rice paddy - one plant at a time by hand.
 

Here are stacks of rice to be replanted.



  The workers plant 1 rice plant at a time- by hand.

 

The workers receive equivalent of $6.00 a day.

 

 Sometimes the water is very deep !!  Yes, they are standing up....

Here is a finished planted field. Notice the dykes to hold the flooded water in the fields.
  
 

The rice plant grows to about 2-3 feet,
 
















 Then the rice paddy is cut and harvested, and the rice hulls are sacked up.  Interesting tractors,,,

  
 And then the shaft is burned.

Here in our area of the Philippines, the rice hulls (with the rice inside of a hull) are raked out to dry onto the sides of the roads where we drive,,, after they somewhat sweep the gravel off the road first.  (Every once in a while,, mmmm we... bite... maybe... into a piece of road gravel...when we are served rice for dinner.  Oh well, all for the Missionary Experience.)

 

 And -wow- the way they stack the Rice!

There is even a small rice paddy behind our apartment home.

 Now for some fun and beautiful pics.  Elder Cristobal caught the bird flying around in the Church, and then let it go...

 

To help your child grow....




Here are beautiful pics of Porzzorubio rice paddies.

 

Wow what a beautiful earth we all have.  

May you plant seeds of faith and harvest good works, &commandments kept that we may all live again with the Master Gardener,  the one who taught Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,
  our loving Heavenly Father - (Ama sa Langit), and his (Son - Anak) Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost (Espiritu Santo),
 together with our Families (mga Pamilya) Forever,   

                     is the  prayer (dasal) of       
Elder Dennis Roberts and Sister Beth Ann Roberts,
   sa pangalan ni Jesus Christ, amen.
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