Alfredo and His Bread Store

We have a Facebook account that we use to help communicate with many of the Perpetual Education Fund participants here in the Philippines.  We help answer questions or send reminders to the participants.  Sometimes we get responses from participants who are so thankful for the opportunity to further their education.  We received a nice message from one of our participants, Alfredo, back in November.

 Alfredo making his bread

He said:

"I received my National Certificate II on Bread and Pastry Production on September 13, 2013.  I am very grateful for the PEF program for giving me a chance to pursue a short course that helped me develop and enhance my skills.  I am now planning to open our bakery.  For the meantime I use my small living room as my working area and our front porch as our store.  That gives me a daily income.  Being unemployed for many years didn't stop me from being active in the church because I know the blessings will come for being obedient.  Being self-reliant gives me confidence to serve better.  I plan to construct our better looking bakery in our front yard in the near future.  I am looking forward to meeting you soon."

Bread fresh from the oven

 

 

When we received this nice response from Alfredo, we forwarded it on to the PEF Headquarters in Salt Lake City.  Just recently the we were asked to see if we could get a picture of Alfredo to go with the story that will be included in the PEF Monthly Newsletter.  We contacted Alfredo and he sent the pictures you are viewing in the blog.  This was his response to us:

 

 

"Hi, Sister.  These are pictures of my bakery and working place.  Thanks to PEF for my education.  I hope this will serve as an inspiration to all.  I would like to study again to learn to become a pastry chef."

 

Here he is in his store





 



We met Alfredo this month.  He wants to take another course so he can improve his skills.  It is very gratifying to see the Perpetual Education Fund help this good brother.  There are many stories like Alfredo's because of  the Perpetual Education Fund.  It's great to see it work.

 



A Job Supermarket and a visit to the U.S. Embassy

Dale talking to Sister Whittaker and a volunteer.

We left home around 8:00 this morning, Saturday, April 5th and drove to the Aurora church building in Quezon City to go to a Job Supermarket presented by the Self Reliance Center in that building. A Job Supermarket is an opportunity to bring together job seekers and employment agencies. We wanted to get an idea of how it was organized so we could prepare to do one in Makati later this year. There were about 20 booths set up with manpower agencies and other job search businesses.

People applying for jobs at the Supermarket.

We walked around and talked to the different agencies and asked them if they would be interested in doing a job fair in Makati. Most of them said they would like to. So now we have some more businesses to invite to our job fair.  There was someone there from McDonalds who told us that they have a goal of having 1000 stores in the Philippines and they were always hiring. Their office is in Makati.  We took pictures of the room set up and then went downstairs to find out what they were doing in the Self Reliance Center. There were people there taking pictures of job applicants and making copies to put on resumes. There were some volunteers working with applicants on their resumes as well.  It was nice to see all of this before we get ready to do one.

 

 

Pasay North Zone on April 7, 2014

 

On Monday afternoon, April 7th, we went with our Zone to tour the American Embassy. We had arranged the tour with Brother Bremner who is one of the Church members that work in the Embassy. All of the missionaries were excited about going. This is probably more of a reflection on how little there is to do on p-day here other than wash clothes. The tour was nice. Brother Bremner did a good job with it and the building was historic and fairly ornate with quite a few picture of the WW II era. On the way to the Embassy we walked along the boardwalk and the missionaries were all impressed by the view of Manila Bay and how nice it was. They took quite a few pictures. I think that there were about 16 missionaries. One pair had to go for a medical check up and could not go.

 

Elder Jenson at Manila Bay with the U.S. Embassy behind him.

 

On the way we noticed that while all of the young men were busy talking to each other the Sister Missionary Trainers (the two tall sisters in the picture above) were talking to people they met about the Church. They talked to someone with a Wendy's shirt on and gave him a pamphlet and then later talked to someone in McDonalds. Talking to people about the Church is what missionaries are supposed to do. It was a great example for the whole group.  Dale brought this up the next day during the Zone Meeting.

 

Anna on the elevated crosswalk near the embassy.

 

We walked down to the Embassy and gave them our IDs so we could be processed in and be given visitor passes. Brother Bremner met us outside and talked with us before we went in. We each had to go through the metal detector and be gently searched. After going through security we were taken through a door and went out into a different world. There was a very nice garden area with some beautiful shade trees. Brother Bremner told us a little of the history of the embassy. It had originally been the home for the American governor who served here. It was later made into the embassy. Parts of it were destroyed during WW II, but because Manila was declared an open city by the Americans and the Japanese some of the building survived the war. The Japanese actually used the embassy during the war. It has a beautiful ballroom and there are pictures on the walls of the authorities who have served there.  Brother Bremner told us about how the flagpole is still standing and in use even though it was struck by bullets during the war. When the embassy was being evacuated as the Japanese came into Manila, the Americans took the flag down and burned it so the Japanese could not desecrate it. After the war there was a military tribunal held in the ballroom for the commander of the Japanese forces in the Philippines.  He was found guilty.  Now there are three buildings in the embassy compound where 1200 people work, 500 of them are Americans.

We always love being with the young missionaries.  They are great!