A Spiritual Feast

Sunday, June 13^th was the dedication of the Cebu City Temple.  It was wonderful.  President Monson, Elder Oaks and Bishop Burton were there from SLC.  Our own Area Presidency was there also.  We attended the 3^rd (and final) dedicatory session on Sunday afternoon.  The new temple is beautiful and we were honored to be the session that Pres. Monson decided to speak “off the cuff” to.  He kept saying that his remarks weren’t in the script but he continued talking and telling stories.  We loved it!  He also did the dedicatory prayer.  The night before (Saturday) there was a big Cultural Celebration that was on live broadcast to all the stake and district centers in the Philippines.  The youth from the Cebu Temple District did native dances in costume.  It was extra special because they had huge screens that broadcast youth from the outlying areas doing the same dances.  It would have been impossible for them all to fit in the arena and the cost of transportation would have been too high so they filmed other groups ahead of time.  We were worried that Pres. Monson would have issues as he kept his suit jacket on the entire time!  The temperature had to have been in the plus 100 degree range and humid.  They must have had an aircon positioned to cool him. 

                Monday was FHE.  It was the first official one with the new Zone members and it was very nice. 

We had spaghetti and meatballs (Italian style).  Filipino style sauce is with very sweet tomato flavored catsup-ie stuff.  Even the natives ate a ton so it must have passed with approval. 

Tuesday was DM and choir practice.  We have some terrific voices in the new group.  It is a very talented group.  Wednesday we went to Makati for Mission Presidency meeting.  Then, on Friday we fixed breakfast for the Zone at 6:30 in the dang morning

and then went to Manila to the Ocean Park. 

We enjoyed our time with the other senior couples and the fish were happy to see us.  Dinner was at the Manila Hotel. 

It is one of the older and more elite hotels in the city and was quite impressive.  Elder Smith had fish and fries and Sister Smith had pasta with eggplant and marinara sauce.  They were pretty yummy.  We had several baptisms this weekend but it was raining or rushed and so didn’t get any pictures.

Changes in Naic

Wow! It’s been quite a week. We went to the Temple and the going home activities on Tuesday. We said goodbye to 2 of our Naic alumni. When the transfer notice came Monday evening we also found that we were saying farewell to lots of our current Zone.

Good bye Elder VillaCarlos

Good bye Elder Valasco

Good bye Elder Mahe

Wednesday at transfer meeting we got 8 new Zone members. That’s half of our Zone.

Our Sisters are finally here. Sister Frost and Sister Betts are the best! We have 2 new Zone Leaders, Elder Dymock and Elder Richwine (an alumni)!

New Comers - Sis. Frost, Sister Betts, Elder Richwine, Elder Dymock and Bruce Pipit (Naic Branch member)We also have 4 other new Elders in the different areas making half of our Zone “new”. It’s going to be great! We went to a planning meeting on Friday morning and the Zone members are really excited and it was so good to get to meet everyone.

Thursday we went to Makati and met Sister Schardt. She had arrived the day before from the Provo MTC. She had found our blog after receiving her mission call and contacted us. We corresponded several times so it was nice to put a face with the name and letters. She is assigned to the DasMarinias Zone which is nearby so we’ll probably get to see her again soon.

Saturday was a different experience for us. The Tanza Branch asked us to teach a class about Conversational English. We had over 20 YM/YW there and practiced saying words in English and learning some basic rules. The kids were really good sports and were able to laugh at themselves when they made mistakes. They were much braver in English than we are when we speak Tagalog.

Our schedule for next week is full, which is a blessing. We both prefer being busy. (Keeping busy keeps Sister Smith out of trouble and makes Elder Smith’s job much easier.)

The fruit of the month is Sineguelas. It is small and the skin feels like the skin of a plum. It is fairly sweet and juicy with a large seed in the middle so there isn’t much substance to them. They remind both of us of plums but are more oval shaped.

Getting ready for Sisters!

The focus this week has been getting the apartment next door ready for the Sister missionaries who will be here on the 2^nd.  Our Zone will be growing to 16 members and so far everyone is thrilled about the additions. 

Monday the Elders were here at 7:00 a.m. and cleaned the apartment. 

They did a good job as there was 9 months of dust, dirt, dead critters, webs and crud to clean. 

(fixing pancakes for the crew)

Elder and Sister Hussey came a couple of times with supplies for the apt.  We think it will be very comfortable for the Sisters and we’re expecting great things from them. 

Monday evening was Zone FHE.  Elder Mahe (going home) had requested Chinese food.  So…  we had broccoli beef and sweet and sour chicken. 

We hadn’t realized that coming to the Philippines would make us multi-cultural cooks but it has.  The meal was wonderful!  We’ll try to post it on the blog (if I can remember and figure the measurements).

Thursday the Tanza Branch had an activity.  The Pesa family lives in a subdivision that has access to a clubhouse and pool. 

The party was there and was really nice.  Everyone had a great time and the kids were like kids everywhere and couldn’t get enough swimming.  There was enough food to feed a small army and all very delicious. The RS president, Sister Gorresetta fixed a raisin pudding from a recipe from a friend in Orem, UT.  It was really good and did taste like home. 

This evening we had a lovely roast beef dinner for our ZL’s, AP’s, TA’s and some Naic branch missionaries. It was a farewell for Elder Mahe and was the first time we’ve made “real” mashed potatoes here. They tasted so dang good!  It’s a pain to have the gas stove going and water boiling in this heat but it was worth it and we’ll do it again soon.

"Slug-brella" leading the Catholic women's parade Sunday morning.  The "slug-brella" is a fixture over here.  We have seen at least a thousand of that particular umbrella since we arrived here.  It is an Avon product and they are everywhere.  We had been "slug-bug" calling one day riding to Manila and switched to calling "slug-brella" since there are so many!

There's a Cold Spell.....NOT

Can’t believe it but it is down into the mid to low 90’s this week! It is still frigging miserable but a bit cooler and there is rain in the forecast for the week also. It’s so dry here that the rain would certainly be a blessing. We had a busy “traveling” week. Went to several Zones to do area book checks so we were in Manila traffic way too much! Fortunately most of the books were in pretty good shape so it didn’t take long at each place. We love going to the other Zones and seeing our Naic Alumni. It is amazing how attached we get to each one who serves here.

Pasig Zone

We’re excitedly getting ready for Sisters to move in next door. We will be cleaning (the Elders doing a service project) and the Hussey’s will be getting the furniture and fixtures this week. Transfers are on June 3^rd so not much time to get things ready. Elder Mahe will be leaving then to go home and we’ll really miss him. Not sure yet how many or which of our other Elders will be transferring. We have a couple who have been here for several transfers so imagine they’ll go this time.

We had several baptisms again this weekend. Attending ones in Tanza, Naic and Ternate kept us traveling even more.
Tanza BaptismNaic BaptismTernate Baptism Tuesday May 25^th will be our one year mark in the mission field. Several of our Elders have asked us to extend so we don’t go home before they do. We’ve explained that they will surely be transferred by then but they said they like the idea of us still being here for them. Ahhh..

One of our new "favorites". Crab, white fish, broccoli and shrimp. Steamed and seasoned! Awesome.

Rocking the Saints at the Fiesta Parade

Parade in front of the apt.

More parade

Heading back from the end of our road. Notice the Jetti Oil storage tanks. They are right on the beach.Neighbors dropping by. The goat herd had just left minutes before.

Pizza Again!

We are so proud of the Naic Zone.  We had the highest baptism rate for the mission again last month so Pres. Howard treated the Zone to pizza after district meeting on Thursday.  The nearest Pizza Hut is nearly an hour away but the AP’s delivered it on time and it was delicious. Yes, just in case you noticed we are so excited about our Zone and the amazing Elders.  However, things are going to get even better!  President told us on Thursday that we are getting Sister missionaries beginning next transfer!  They will be moving into the vacant apartment next door to us.  The Mission Office is already working with the landlady on the lease and hopefully everything will be ready to go for the first of June.  Somehow the Zone just keeps getting better!               

Much of our week was spent getting ready for District Missionary training on Friday evening.  We held it at the Naic Chapel and each branch mission leader and missionaries were invited.  The Elders did the training focusing on reactivation, correlation meetings, referrals and helping the full time missionaries.  We had a good attendance and very informative meeting.

One of the best parts was that the District Presidency called an emergency meeting with the Branch Presidents at the same time.  So, when their meeting was finished many of the presidents and the District Presidency came in for dinner and visiting with everyone attending.  We had hot dogs, chips, pakwan (watermelon) and juice packs. We had ordered little ice cream sundae cups from our neighborhood bakery and odds and ends store for dessert.  We will probably be doing another one in a couple of months.  We’re concentrating on getting the members more excited and involved with the work. 

Maragondon Baptism

Naic Baptism

                Our buddy, Elder Tadeo, came to the meeting and to spend his 26^th birthday with us.  He enjoys visiting with the converts from his days here in Naic.  He even got to “finally” see our tuko.  It was living here when he and Elder Bowman were ZL’s when we got here last year but it was his first sighting.  On closer observation Friday night, we’re guessing he (our Tuko) is about 14-15” long now.  He’s pretty impressive.

Happy Mother's Day

Yes, we do celebrate Mother’s Day in the Philippines! Sister Smith was wished a happy one at least 50 times at church. There were lots of smiles and good wishes. The Primary children sang some songs and the YM/YW did a number and furnished a speaker. Sort of felt like home!

It’s too dang hot to do very much so we had a fairly low key week. The temperatures are in or pushing 100 degrees every day so the only relief we really get is when we are in the kotse (car). It is still in the high 80’s or low 90’s even during the middle of the night. Phooey!

We did have a super fun FHE Monday with our Zone. We had Filipino food this time and since the majority of our Elders are natives, they were pleased. We had secured a bunch of trumpo’s (wooden tops) and had a spinning contest. Elder Smith is determined to develop the skill before we head home. The tops have a nail at the base and string to wind ‘em up. The trick is in the release. When it is done correctly the things will spin like crazy and you can even do lots of tricks with them. The kids here are playing with them all the time.

Zone Conference was on Thursday so we went to Makati the night before and went to dinner (AT CHILI’S) with the new office couple, the Swensens. It was a lovely visit and good to get acquainted. At the Zone Conf. our choir sang to Sister Howard as a Mother’s Day tribute. She seemed really pleased.

We had several baptisms this weekend. There were more than we could attend which is wonderful. We did make it to two of them and have included pictures.
Trece Martires BaptismTanza Baptism It is amazing how hard the Elders keep working even in the heat. Another month or two and they’ll be doing their work in the mud and heat and they just keep on going, and going, and going…

It's Elections in the Philippines. There were at least 500 million posters up on every available surface! The elections are May 10th. Will be glad when it's over and things get cleaned up a bit.

Some draught relief

It finally rained!  We have gone several months without any measurable rainfall and finally this week we had a couple of gully-washers!  It actually cooled our 100 degree temperatures down at least temporarily.  More rain is forecast for this coming week and we sure need it.  The rainy season doesn’t officially begin until June but this little head start is welcome.

                We had a pretty typical week with visits to less-active members, tutoring, meetings with our Zone and so on.  Wednesday we went to Makati for a meeting with the Mission Presidency.  We didn’t get home until after 11:00 p.m. so was a long day for us.  Our Zone choir is getting ready to sing at Zone Conference on Thursday.   We wrote some new words to “Mother, I love you” from the Children’s Songbook.  Sister Howard hopefully will be surprised and pleased when we sing to her.                 We’re on rat #4 during the past 2 weeks.  Our back porch is surrounded by fields that are full of miscellaneous crud and vermin.  The roof has a gap of several inches between it and the walls so they don’t have to work very hard to get in.  There are also assorted holes in the floor and walls.  Elder Smith has patched most of them and is always on the lookout for more.  These guys are just wimpy, regular sized rats.  They’re nothing like the Godzilla rat we had when we first got here last year.  (Thank goodness.)                We started off the month of May with a baptism in Trece. The projections for the month are looking very good.  Our Zone is so awesome and works so hard.  We’re really proud of them. 

Another new month and new fruit!  This time it is Buko. We realize that you all recognize coconut when you see one but buko is the green coconut. It is full of milk and gooey, chewy coconut meat.  Once it matures it turns brown and the milk pretty much goes away and the meat portion is much thicker.  They are a very popular drink here.  There are also buko pies, buko shakes, buko smoothies, buko salads and about any thing else you can think of.  The buko in the picture has the top trimmed so a straw can be inserted to drink out the milk.  At the palanke the buko is P15 each or about $0.30 each.

Our new sofa set.  It's fairly comfortable and we no longer stick to it!  Fabric vs vinal

A ship that Elder Smith is nuts about.  Found at a Handicraft store in Makati.