We Love Elder Holland!

It’s been an awesome week for us. We left last Thursday for the Mission Home and attended a multi-Zone conference. Our Zone Choir sang for it and they were amazing. It really sounded wonderful. I was so dang proud. We sang the words from the last song on the CD of “My Servant Joseph” by Kenneth Cope. It was done to the tune of “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief”. They totally nailed it! The Conference was informative as usual and was the beginning of a special experience for Elder Smith and myself.

We spent the next 4 days and 3 nights at the Mission Home with the Senior Couples. It was so fun to get to know each couple better and to share some quality time with them. They are such spiritual, talented, kind, thoughtful, loving people. We are honored to be serving with them in the Manila Mission. We went out to dinner at Chili’s on Thursday evening and then to T.G.I. Friday’s on Friday evening. Excellent food at both restaurants. We got our fix of Chili’s chips and salsa. We went shopping and generally goofed off part of the time. Then, we got down to business and played a couple of games of Uno. Oh yes, we know who won! Sister Smith!

Saturday and Sunday were spent watching General Conference. We were all impressed with the speakers and loved hearing our Prophet. Everyone was blown away by Elder Holland’s talk. Oh my goodness, what a wonderful testimony of the Book of Mormon. We hope and pray that anyone who is reading our blog will take the time to read this important talk and then take Moroni’s challenge. The Book of Mormon is true! We have been trying to do our scripture study since we got our call. We’ve read the New Testament, D&C, Pearl of Great Price and Elder Smith is on his 3^rd time through the Book of Mormon so far this year. I am on my 4^th time through and am hoping to add most of the Old Testament before year-end. It is such a blessing to have regular scripture study in our lives and to reinforce the truths we’ve known for so long. We learn something new every reading.

We also learned this weekend that Sister Howard is a snack-oholic! The coffee table in the front room was so loaded with candy, nuts, chips, and munchies we thought it just might collapse. So many treats and only 5 sessions of conference to eat them in, how could we manage? We did!

The typhoons and storms that keep hitting the Philippines have not affected us. We are very thankful that we’ve only had some heavy rains and minor inconvenience. We pray for the many families who have been so devastated by the weather. Sunday, President Howard told us that all missionaries in the Philippines, Samoa, Tonga and Indonesia are safe and accounted for. Some apartments were lost but no injuries or other problems. We feel very blessed.

We had Zone FHE tonight and once again we have more reason to love our Elders. They are so fun and we love having them in our home. I fixed a couple of ulams and lots of rice. They were a hit so will get them posted on the Family Recipe Blog. Ice cream and no-bake cookies rounded out the meal.

Elder Ngaluafe on his 21st birthday (left) with Elder Vaka (right) Our Zone Leaders No, I didn't make the cake. It was pretty and Filipino tasting.

New month, new fruit! Lantis are small yellow fruits that grow in bunches. They peal easily and have 5 sections inside. Each section has a seed in it. They are citrusy and tart. We’re not keen on all the seeds but they are pretty tasty.