Wow! What a Ride!

Yes, we are home and loving the cool weather!  It was so good to see our family and get tons of hugs and kisses.  We miss our "kids" and friends in the Philippines more than we imagined.  We've been so blessed by our Mission experience and we're very thankful to everyone who made it possible.  Thank you all!  Elder..'oops, I mean Darrel wants us to continue the blog for a while so check for updates.  We've already heard from many of our missionaries and members and love the contacts.  Here are our last few days in the Philippines in pictures!  Our best wishes for a wonderful New Year and we hope 2011 will bring great joy and blessings into your life!

Last FHE with our Zone at the Manila Temple enjoying the lights and spirit.

E. Langer, E. Richwine and David Tadeo (our first ZL)

  Good bye to Elder Richwine.  He has been in Naic Zone on two occasions and has served with us longer than any other individual.

Saying Goodbye to Sister Jeane Arandia.  Our tutor, tour guide, friend and one of the nicest and sweetest people we've ever met. 

 

The last dinner with our "Senior" friends.  Howards, Petersons, Morgans, Smiths and Swensons 

 The Morgan's had a Fred cake made for our last evening at the Mission Home.  The Office Elders, TA's and AP's joined the Senior Couples for dessert and paalam.  They were upset as the cake tipped and slid during the ride to Makati.  We thought it was beautiful (and delicious) anyway!

 

   Arriving home. Met by our loved ones in Las Vegas!

President Curtis Steadman releasing us.  We are in our living room with lots of family watching.  Wow!  What a ride we had! 

Our daughter had our tickets for The Forgotten Carols on Dec. 21st.  Was great to see the show and Michael McLean again. 

Welcome Home!!!

Preparing to leave soon

We checked our blog earlier today and there are just 4 days to go. Amazing! In some ways it seems we just got here last week and in other ways it seems like we’ve always been here. We have visited all 7 Branches in the District during the past 3 weeks. Each time we have said goodbye to many good friends. Our hearts will always treasure the love and kindness we have experienced here.


We went to Makati this week for Zone Conference. We enjoyed spending time with the Morgan’s and seeing some sights. We took them to the Mall of Asia and noticed the Spam kiosk. It seemed to be doing a pretty good business. Our Zone sang “12 Days of Christmas” at the conference. We reused last year’s lyrics and they were great. The Zone really got into the spirit of things and sang their hearts out. We have had some fun, enthusiastic, vocally superior choirs during the past 18 months. For the Christmas Zone Conference we watched “The Other Side of Heaven” and “The Best Two Years”. The snacks were flowing and popping and disappearing. We had hot dogs for lunch and generally just enjoyed hanging out.

We will be headed to the Mission Home on Tuesday and then meeting the Peterson’s on Wednesday. We feel bad because there won’t be time to bring them out to Naic and show them around. The Morgan’s came out last week and we gave them the guided tour so they will be doing the honors. We’re going to the Manila Temple grounds tomorrow night to see the Christmas lights with our Zone. It is going to be a treat!

Spam Kiosk

 Swenson's with E. Lillywhite and E. Ward (They both say "Hi Mom!")

 Sister Arlene (baptized in July/2010). Shirlynn and Arwin on her lap and neighborhood kids gathered for our visit. Truly amazing Sister. We began visiting her when she was investigating the Church and try to go out to her place every week or so.

 We passed 4 of these basket carts on the way from Punta to Tanza this morning

 Balloons are "big" here. Used at parties, weddings, funerals and anything else. We passed 2 tryke's-full this morning.

 Some kids playing by the side of the road to our apartment

Last turn before our apartment. The Tindahan is open every day and usually quite busy.

 On the road to our apartment