BAGAMANOC | Day 23 to 26 |

MAY 8, 2014:
Day one of the fiesta in Sagrada. There will be no missionary work for today and in the next few days because of the fiesta and the tradition of Sagrada and San Vicente. The members also invited us to eat so we will feast and pig out for 3 days! 😁 This is also a good day for me. All is well right now, district inventory fixed everything. 😌 I also found out that my former housemate and ZL will be the next AP. Elder Yu deserves it. He is a great missionary.

There's a lot of people in Sagrada today. They are all having fun. There was a parade, food contest, dancing, singing, and other entertaining things. We went and ate first at Toltol Family, then at Bro. Ronnie, then to the Lopez Family, and at night we went back to Toltol Family. We are so full! It's hard to walk back to our apartment. Haha. This was a fun day! 😃

(From L to R) Elders Bagaoisan, Moran, Bacalso, and Me.

Yep! That's an eel, snails, and frogs. These are some of the rare delicacies here. I don't think that I can eat the latter. 😅

The Toltol Family, one of the families that invited us.

Here are some memorable dish and delicacies in day one:

Ginataang Adobong Pusit/Pugita - This is my favorite dish for today! It is so delicious!

Ginataang Sigarilyas - A delicious vegetable dish.

Balisungsong - Kinda similar to Suman but it tastes more coconut milk.

Adobong Pato - It's like chicken adobo but the duck fat is different. I'm not a fan of this one.

Pork Humba - It's really gooooood! I like the sweetness of this pork dish.

MAY 9, 2014:
Day two of the fiesta in Sagrada and today is also the first day of the fiesta in San Vicente. Yep, double feast today! Food overdose! 😝 From morning until eve we ate and we ate a lot. 🐷 We went to Interior Family, Candelaria Family, Vecina Family, Lopez Family, Molina Family, Lanon Family, and lastly with the Garcia Family. There are so many foods to eat and there comes a point that I can't eat anymore and I tap out. Haha. 😂

Here are some memorable dish and delicacies on day two:

Cocido - a fish stew tangy with calamansi. It's good.

Ginataang Suso - I tried it a little bit and it's not bad. I'm starting to like this one.

Tinilmok -  It is a steamed coconut meat with cut shrimp. The taste gets along pretty well.

Eel Adobo - It tastes fish-like but different. It's hard to explain.

Dinuguan with Gata - Uhm, it is really different from the usual dinuguan. I'm not a fan of adding coconut milk to this dish.

MAY 10, 2014:
The second day of the fiesta in San Vicente. Day 3 of all fiestas overall. It comes to the point that we're all tired of eating meat. It's a good problem to have. 😅 Today we ate with Molina Family, Lanon Family, Garcia Family, and Villamartin Family. Elder Moran also helps cooking the liver dish. I helped with cutting it. I also experience grinding coconut meat in a traditional way and crushing it to produce coconut milk.

Here are some memorable dish and delicacies on day three:

Adobong Atay (Liver) - It's really good. I like it.

Nilagang Kalabaw - Kinda similar to bulalo but different.

Carabeef Tapa - I like this one compared to nilagang version of Carabao.

Adobong Pugita - This is also a good one. I love seafoods.

Laing - Classic Bicolano taro dish. Catanduanes version is not spicy compared to Albay but I still like it.

I am really thankful to all the families that invited us. I appreciate all their kindness to us. These past three days is one of the memorable moment in my early mission days. It was fun. 😊


MAY 11, 2014:
Oh. I feel sick but this is not an excuse to not go to church today. In the afternoon we proselyted. Many members worked with us today. But people in Sagrada are probably tired because of the feast that's why we didn't have many lessons. One of our recent converts (Kristine Joy) is also sick and I gave her medicine and we blessed her afterward. Hopefully, she'll get better soon.

Notable moments of May 8 to May 11:

• District Inventory
• Sagrada Fiesta - Day 1