Still singing our way thru Manila.

It was a fun, musical, traffic filled week.  Monday we went to the Makati Zone for Mission song practice. We hoofed it home in a hurry as we had Zone FHE that evening. We’d put on the crock pot full of meatballs and spaghetti sauce at 7 a.m. and it smelled dang good when we got here in the afternoon.  We served a traditional spaghetti feast with meatball sauce, Alfredo sauce, garlic bread, tossed salad and rice!  Ice cream and donuts finished us off!  We really look forward to these gatherings and the Elders seem to enjoy themselves also.

Tuesday morning it was off to San Gabriel and Las Pinas Zones. Wednesday found us in the Paranaque Zoneand Thursday we went to Pasay 

and then Manila Zones.Elder Smith and I have reached a “Manila Traffic” driving agreement.  He drives and I close my eyes!  When my eyes are open I tend to shriek, slam on my driver’s side brakes and motion frantically with my arms and hands.  For some reason that seems to distract him so when my eyes are closed, we’re both happier.  After our last Zone stop I told President Howard that anyone who lives in Manila by choice is nuts!  He agreed.  Living in the Provinces is much quieter but still hectic compared to home.

Friday was low key for a change.  We had tutoring during the morning and then went with Sister Jean to visit some less active Naic Branch families during the afternoon.  It was lots of fun and so nice to find new friends.  Next Wednesday we will be going back to one of the homes for a FHE.  It will be great and we’re excited.  Most of the ones we visited were at Church today which is the biggest blessing.  Saturday evening there was a Naic Branch FHE.  The lesson was about Gossip and its negative effects.  It is great to know that the members have the same problems everywhere?  There were lots of fun games afterward and some sopas for dinner.  We are hopeful that someday we will be able to convince our wards at home that simple is good.  The games that are played and enjoyed here are just that, simple.  The difference between here and home is that everyone participates, laughs, has fun and enjoys themselves.   It is a noisy confusing mass of laughter.  It just “feels” fun. 

We’ve included a rehearsal copy of “The 12 Days of Christmas” (a bit late) in this post.  Just in case you can’t understand the words, here goes:

1 Dear John letter from my sweetie        2 sweat cloths                   3 boring ties       4 socks with holes

5 letters from home       6 cups of rice      7 dingy white shirts         8 roosters crowing

9 geckos climbing             10 miles of walking          11 ants ‘a marching         12 hungry skeeters

It was such a fun song and the Elders loved singing it.  During our visits to other Zones this past two weeks several have greeted us with lines from the song.

12 days of Christmas- Mission.wma