This is the road into Villa Escudero where we had the Managers Retreat. Just Beautiful
Here is Mutya our Caribou
Al riding up front ride behind the Caribou
Our Filipino lunch at the waterfalls. Yum
Games we played in the evening.Pictionary
Coconut drink. Interesting .
Coconut leaf origami bird
Lunch at the waterfalls. In the foreground is Lee Gunnerson and wife Joan
Lunch at the waterfalls at Villa Escudero. Notice everyone has their feet in the water.
Lunch at the waterfalls. Feet in the water
More pictures of the waterfall and lunch
Louie and Neda Costelas
Dinner in the evening at the dining hall. It was a buffet dinner with different Filipino food.
Cultural show in the afternoon
Cultural show
Cultural show
Plaque at the Underground Cemetery
The Mausoleum at the underground cemetery
Looking toward the church and cemetary
The Filipino's made many useful things from rice straw
The grounds at the cemetery
Looking back to the road from the cemetery
Buffet lunch
Map of the world with rice grains of different kinds from various parts of the world
Art work painted with a rice paste
Joy Messein modeling a rice workers hat
Artifacts used in the rice fields
Janice McAllister, Joan Gunnerson, Joy Messein and me modeling the hats
Janice McAllister (Legal council wife) by rice stalks
Me, Joy, Valerie and Neda holding up the world
Modeling hats.
Glamour hats
Neda at Rice World
Leni of Public Affairs drove us to the various places of interest.
Looking back from the front of the van. We had a great time.
Al needing a nap
Front door to our apartment lodging at Villa Escudero
Mosquito net we used over our bed just in case. Only saw one mosquito.
Last night there we had a Karoke fun sing fest
Singing and dancing while Doug McAllister Legal Council sang
Gathering before we left.
Goodbye gathering
Coconut drink. Interesting .
Coconut leaf origami bird
Lunch at the waterfalls. In the foreground is Lee Gunnerson and wife Joan
Lunch at the waterfalls at Villa Escudero. Notice everyone has their feet in the water.
Lunch at the waterfalls. Feet in the water
More pictures of the waterfall and lunch
Louie and Neda Costelas
Dinner in the evening at the dining hall. It was a buffet dinner with different Filipino food.
Cultural show in the afternoon
Cultural show
Cultural show
Plaque at the Underground Cemetery
The Mausoleum at the underground cemetery
Looking toward the church and cemetary
The Filipino's made many useful things from rice straw
The grounds at the cemetery
Looking back to the road from the cemetery
Buffet lunch
Map of the world with rice grains of different kinds from various parts of the world
Art work painted with a rice paste
Joy Messein modeling a rice workers hat
Artifacts used in the rice fields
Janice McAllister, Joan Gunnerson, Joy Messein and me modeling the hats
Janice McAllister (Legal council wife) by rice stalks
Me, Joy, Valerie and Neda holding up the world
Modeling hats.
Glamour hats
Neda at Rice World
Leni of Public Affairs drove us to the various places of interest.
Looking back from the front of the van. We had a great time.
Al needing a nap
Front door to our apartment lodging at Villa Escudero
Mosquito net we used over our bed just in case. Only saw one mosquito.
Last night there we had a Karoke fun sing fest
Singing and dancing while Doug McAllister Legal Council sang
Gathering before we left.
Goodbye gathering
Our DTA, Director of Temporal Affairs Lee Gunnerson, held a Manager's Retreat at a wonderful resort named Villa Escudero. It is a Coconut Plantation as well as a resort in the town of San Pablo City about 2 hours from Manila. Since we are the Security Managers we were invited to come. We are the only missionaries that attended. Other managers are full time employees of the church employed at the Area Office.
Villa Escudero is a wonderful resort with a river that runs right passed it. Wonderful lodging and great food. Well that is just the resort. The meetings held for the managers the first day and second was very informative and stimulating to move the church business along. The spouses were taken to several places of interest. A underground cemetery about 18 kilometers away. A Footwear market. A Rice Museum. All seen in a couple of days.
The first day was Thursday October 28th. We met at the Area Office and traveled by 2 vans and a couple of cars. Once we arrived we checked in and took a caribou cart ride to the cottage type apartments for our lodging accommodations. It was very nice. No need for air conditioning as it was very pleasant temperature wise. It did rain while we were there but it was most pleasant.
Villa Escudero is a wonderful resort with a river that runs right passed it. Wonderful lodging and great food. Well that is just the resort. The meetings held for the managers the first day and second was very informative and stimulating to move the church business along. The spouses were taken to several places of interest. A underground cemetery about 18 kilometers away. A Footwear market. A Rice Museum. All seen in a couple of days.
The first day was Thursday October 28th. We met at the Area Office and traveled by 2 vans and a couple of cars. Once we arrived we checked in and took a caribou cart ride to the cottage type apartments for our lodging accommodations. It was very nice. No need for air conditioning as it was very pleasant temperature wise. It did rain while we were there but it was most pleasant.
After checking into our rooms we met for lunch at a waterfall on the premises. It was from a dam built that actually accounts for the river. We walked into some water at the base of the waterfall and went through a buffet line to get our food. Then waded to tables to eat our lunch with our feet in the water. Interesting atmosphere. Pretty fun. We thank our DTA Lee Gunnerson for treating us to this resort for the managers retreat.
After lunch the managers met for some meetings related to their work and the spouses were shown some sights. We saw an old church that had a mausoleum cemetery in the basement. We then were taken to a FootWear Outdoor market to shop. I saw sooooomany flip flops in all colors and designs. Other style shoes as well.
In the evening we all had dinner buffet style and then had a gathering with a short meeting and a pictionary game before retiring.
Next morning it was buffet style Filipino Breakfast before the managers had their meetings and the spouses went to a Rice Museum about an hour away. This was very interesting. It had exhibits of how rice is planted, milled and stored. Had samples of many different types of rice. On the property it had many types of rice growing where they test it with different pesticides and fertiziler so it can better produce a good crop of rice. I had no idea there were so many different types of rice. The other spouses and myself enjoyed taking lots of pictures and posing for our camera in the hats used by workers in the field. A very bonding experience. Then it was back for lunch and some free time to rest before having dinner. We experienced some Filipino food which was very interesting. Rice is served at every meal as well as fish of some sort. I am posting pictures of it but don't ask me to tell you what was in it. I really don't know. After lunch there was a combined spouse and manager meeting that some good information was given. A Health presentation by the DTA and information on how we can represent the church by Leni our Public Affairs manager. It was all well done. Then a remarkable cultural show with singing and dancing and beautiful costumes. Many of the performers were actual employees of the resort.
There is a very extensive museum of the premises that display artifacts from different Asian countries as well as the Philippines. From dish wear, clothing, religious floats for holidays to jewelry, soldier gear...and so on. Very interesting to view however we were not allowed to take pictures.
After dinner that night some of us went to another part of the resort for a Karaoke event. It was pretty fun. Everyone joined in to sing and dance. A good time was had by all.
Next morning the 30th it was breakfast and time to say goodbye. A very rewarding weekend. Thank you Lee Gunnerson and all those who helped to make it happen. We appreciate all that you did to make this retreat a REAL TREAT.
After lunch the managers met for some meetings related to their work and the spouses were shown some sights. We saw an old church that had a mausoleum cemetery in the basement. We then were taken to a FootWear Outdoor market to shop. I saw sooooomany flip flops in all colors and designs. Other style shoes as well.
In the evening we all had dinner buffet style and then had a gathering with a short meeting and a pictionary game before retiring.
Next morning it was buffet style Filipino Breakfast before the managers had their meetings and the spouses went to a Rice Museum about an hour away. This was very interesting. It had exhibits of how rice is planted, milled and stored. Had samples of many different types of rice. On the property it had many types of rice growing where they test it with different pesticides and fertiziler so it can better produce a good crop of rice. I had no idea there were so many different types of rice. The other spouses and myself enjoyed taking lots of pictures and posing for our camera in the hats used by workers in the field. A very bonding experience. Then it was back for lunch and some free time to rest before having dinner. We experienced some Filipino food which was very interesting. Rice is served at every meal as well as fish of some sort. I am posting pictures of it but don't ask me to tell you what was in it. I really don't know. After lunch there was a combined spouse and manager meeting that some good information was given. A Health presentation by the DTA and information on how we can represent the church by Leni our Public Affairs manager. It was all well done. Then a remarkable cultural show with singing and dancing and beautiful costumes. Many of the performers were actual employees of the resort.
There is a very extensive museum of the premises that display artifacts from different Asian countries as well as the Philippines. From dish wear, clothing, religious floats for holidays to jewelry, soldier gear...and so on. Very interesting to view however we were not allowed to take pictures.
After dinner that night some of us went to another part of the resort for a Karaoke event. It was pretty fun. Everyone joined in to sing and dance. A good time was had by all.
Next morning the 30th it was breakfast and time to say goodbye. A very rewarding weekend. Thank you Lee Gunnerson and all those who helped to make it happen. We appreciate all that you did to make this retreat a REAL TREAT.
Lee Gunnerson gave us some excercise bands after he gave us some Health information on diet and excercise. And at the end of the retreat he gave us all a DVD of Truman Madsen's travels to Bibilical sights.
