Singing a song is fun to do..

Great experience this week! Our Zone Elders choir sang at the Zone Conference in the Mission Home. They did a great job. We sang “Guard Him Joseph” by Sally DeFord.

Guard Him Joseph

The recording doesn’t do the choir justice. For some reason all the clunkers sound worse when they are recorded up close. From back in the room it sounded wonderful. Then we did our very own newly written version of “The Valiant Song” from the children’s songbook. Sister Howard had asked all the missionaries at the last Zone Conferences to learn it and be ready to begin singing it. We went a step further. Elder Smith wrote a second verse (with a little help from his companion) and it was a smash hit. He recorded it live with our little MP3 and it is included with this posting.

I will be Valiant

The chuckles during the song are because we incorporated our Mission Motto. “Magtrabaho, Magtrabaho, Magtrabaho, Magdasal, Magdasal, Magdasal, Pagsunod!” (Work, work, work, pray, pray, pray, be obedient) Most of our Elders speak English as a second language so I’m always amazed at how clearly the words to the songs are. You can download the music attachments and listen to them. Sure hope it comes through for everyone to hear. We spent Thursday night and all day Friday at the Mission Home.

It was Zone FHE again this last Monday. Was great fun with a breakfast for dinner menu. Elder Smith flipped pancakes for the masses and fixed scrambled eggs with corned beef. It was yummy and the Elders all seemed to enjoy it. The American Elders were thrilled with the pancakes and since I fixed a pot of rice, the native Elders were happy also. We so love the spirit that the Elders bring into our home. We fixed enough extra so that each companionship had leftovers in a bag for breakfast the next morning.

Thursday evening was the second training session for Branch mission leaders. We fixed sopas again and enjoyed the evening. The attendees seemed to enjoy themselves and had lots of good questions. It is going to be fun to see the response to these training sessions. It is helping to make a more effective working relationship between the full time Elders and the branch leaders. We are planning a follow-up training for after the first of the New Year.

We’ll be leaving Thursday of this week for Makati then early Saturday morning we will be flying to Palawan for a conference and fun time. We’ll get back on the evening of the 25th then head back to Makati for a Thanksgiving dinner on the 26th. We won’t be home and settled until after that so no post next Sunday but we’ll have a doozer the following week! Since we won’t be in touch until afterwards, Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (And happy birthday, Steven! )